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BASES  OF  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF 
HISTORIC  AND  IDEAL 

AN  OUTLINE  OF  RELIGIOUS  STUDY 


BY 

CHARLES  MELLEN  TYLER,  A.M.,  D.D. 

Professor  of  the  History  and  Philosophy  of  Religion  and 
of  Christian  Ethics,  Cornell  University 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

27  West  Twenty-third  Street  24  Bedford  Street,  Strand 

i;^e  ^nitkerbotkcr  '^xtas 
1897 


MENRY  MORSE  STEPHEHtf 

Copyright,  1897 

BY 

CHARLES  MELLEN  TYLER 
Jlotered  at  Statioijefs'.  Hall,  London 


"^be  Itnickerboclier  prc00»  flew  Vovk 


TO 

MR.  HENRY  W.  SAGE 

THE  FOUNDER  OF 

THE   SAGE   SCHOOL  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

THIS  BOOK   IS 

AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED 

BY  THE  WRITER. 


512545 


PREFACE. 


THE  indications  of  a  concordat  between  theology 
and  anthropology  are  cheering.  Science  is 
more  clearly  discerning  the  spiritual  essence  of  man 
and  nature.  Theology,  accepting  the  fact  of  the 
antiquity  of  man  and  the  lessons  taught  by  archaeo- 
logical research,  now  interprets  the  doctrine  of  the 
fall  of  man,  in  terms  of  a  reverent  and  enlightened 
philosophy  of  history. 

Both  science  and  philosophy  accept  the  Divine 
law  of  development,  and  the  distress  of  thought  is 
greatly  mitigated. 

Every  serious  mind  has  a  philosophy  of  religion. 
In  our  modern  thinking,  we  find  the  basis  of  our  re- 
ligious belief  in  the  study  of  the  facts  of  the  world  and 
of  human  nature.  The  latter  force  us  to  believe  in  a 
Being,  above  the  course  of  the  world  which  is  de- 
veloped in  time — a  Being  of  Goodness  who  is  the 
cause  of  all  that  is  included  in  the  world. 

That  God  can  be  known  in  his  transcendence,  is 
the  view  of  a  **  romantic  "  metaphysic.  That  he  can 
be  known  only  in  his  relation  to  us  and  to  the  world, 


vi  Preface, 

as  immanent  in  both,  is  the  teaching  of  an  inductive 
metaphysic.  Speculative  ontology  gives  way  to  an 
immanent  ontology.  Religious  philosophy  is  the 
coronation  of  the  scientific  structure,  and  in  a  scien- 
tific spirit  limits  its  study  to  that  which  can  be  ob- 
served, viz.,  to  the  Being  who  is  intramundane,  and 
to  the  "  being  which  we  ourselves  are." 

The  facts  of  man's  religious  history  and  the  moral 
and  religious  ideals  which  are  the  forces  of  all  prog- 
ress, demand  and  find  their  meaning  in  the  perfect 
Goodness,  who  is  the  Supreme  Cause  and  End. 

Inseparable  from  the  belief  in  the  Supreme  Cause 
and  End,  who  is  the  explanation  of  the  ideals  of 
reason  and  conscience,  which  have  urged  humanity 
along  the  track  of  progress,  is  the  conviction  of  an 
immortal  life  in  which  those  ideals  may  find  con- 
summation. 

These  aspirations  are  more  than  adequate  to  the 
existence  of  terrestrial  society.  In  excess  of  the 
demands  of  a  life  confined  to  time,  they  prove,  in- 
deed, hostile  to  man's  physical  life,  shattering  often 
the  health  of  the  philanthropist  and  the  reformer. 
They  are,  so  to  speak,  semaphores  which  signal  afar 
higher  reaches  and  functions  of  being. 

Life  would,  indeed,  be  a  cruelty  as  well  as  an  enig- 
ma, if  these  tremendous  aspirations  of  the  soul  were 
not  to  be  satisfied  in  a  future  life  of  union  with 
infinite  Goodness.  Inductive  reasoning  is  here  a 
powerful  ally  of  hope. 

The  writer  has  aimed  to  give  simply  a  r^sum^  of 
the  conclusions  of  modern  thought.     To  enter  in  dis- 


Preface.  vii 

cussion  of  critical  problems  of  psychology  or  meta- 
physics, he  has  not  attempted — that  would  have  led 
him  too  far  afield. 

He  indulges  the  hope  that  this  little  book  may  be 
of  some  service  to  students  in  our  Colleges,  and  to 
some  who  purpose  to  enter  the  pulpit,  and  that  it 
may  help  them  to  appreciate  the  Divine  origin  and 
purpose  of  the  religious  belief  of  humanity. 

Charles  Mellen  Tyler. 

Cornell  University, 
May,  1897. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Definition  of  Religion 


CHAPTER  II. 

Prehistoric   and   Historic    Data,   and   their 
Bearing  upon  the  Study  of  Religion 


24 


CHAPTER  III. 

Was    the    Beginning   of    Human    History    a 

Moral  Catastrophe  ? 44 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion         .        .      74 


PART  II. 

CHAPTER  I. 
Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     117 


X  Contents. 

CHAPTER  11. 


PAGE 


Ethical  Grounds 158 

CHAPTER  HI. 
^STHETICAL    GROUND l88 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized      .     206 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Ultimate  Ground,  or  God  Revealed  in 

Human  Progress 235 

Conclusion 259 


PART   I. 

HISTORIC   BASIS   OF   RELIGIOUS 
BELIEF. 


CHAPTER  I. 


DEFINITION   OF   RELIGION. 


THAT  man  is  in  all  lands  and  in  every  age  a 
religious  being,  is  now  the  general,  if  not  the 
unanimous  verdict  of  students  of  Religion.     It  re- 
quires fortitude   to  assert   in   the  present  state  of 
knowledge  that  there  is  now,  or  ever  has 
been,  on    the  surface   of  the  planet  any     "''"."3^*'^' 
race    or    tribe    without    Religion.     *'  No 
tribe  or  nation,"  says    Professor  Thiele,    "  has   yet 
been    met  with   destitute  of   belief   in    any  higher 
beings ;  and  travellers  who  asserted  their  existence 
have  been   afterwards   refuted    by  the  facts.     It  is 
legitimate,  therefore,  to  call  Religion  in  its  most  gen-   . 
eral  sense  a  universal  phenomenon  of  humanity."  * 
The  progress  of  research  has  not  only  forced  anthro- 
pologists to  concede  this,  but  in  an  excess  of  convic- 
tio'n,  some  who  formerly  resisted  this  claim  for  man, 
now  hasten  to  assure  us  that  Religion  is  not  a  fact 
peculiar  to   man,  but   is   possessed   by  animals  as 
well. 


Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  origin, of  B,eligion,  and  its  essence  as  well, 

properly ;  beloiVg '  tb 'thd 'realm  of  philosophy.     The 

manifestations  of  Religion  are  the  legiti- 

Science  must  ,   °  -m  -i 

deal  with  mate  materials  of  science.  The  rhiloso- 
rehgious  pj^y  q£  Religion  can  achieve  no  adequate 
definition  of  Religion  without  the  study 
of  the  facts  of  history,  nor  can  the  history  of  these 
religious  phenomena,  which  aids  the  construction  of 
a  science,  enable  us  to  arrive  at  a  true  conception 
of  Religion,  without  the  light  that  philosophy  casts 
upon  its  source  and  essence.  To  collate  these  his- 
toric religious  phenomena,  to  compare  with  each 
other  these  manifestations  among  various  peoples, 
thus  establishing  the  unity  of  all  Religion,  is  the 
work  of  a  Science  of  Religion.  Science  traces  the 
historical  development  of  the  Religious  Idea,  and 
there  is  a  natural  history  of  Religion.  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  a  history  wherein  we  have  a  mass  of  facts 
selected  from  the  experience  of  various  races,  with- 
out attempt  to  relate  these  facts,  or  they  may  be 
compared  with  each  other  to  ascertain  if  they  con- 
stitute a  unity.*  The  object  of  the  Science  of  Re- 
ligion is  not  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  cults  and  rites 
as  isolated  facts  which  present  an  aspect  of  similarity, 
but  to  bring  them  out  of  disorder  into  a  system,  to 
find  that  they  are  parts  of  an  orderly  whole. 

Thus  the  comparison  of  religions,  a  legitimate 
effort  of  science,  leads  directly  to  the  Philosophy  of 
Religion.     For  there  can  be  no  comparative  History 

*  See  Dr.  Menzies,  History  of  Reli^on^ 


Definition  of  Religion.  5 


of  Religion  which  does  not  interrogate  the  vital  rela- 
tions of  the  various  religions.  And  there  can  be  no 
vital  relations  between  them,  apart  from  the  Reason 
in  the  world  which,  with  purpose,  has  founded  those 
relations.  Here  we  enter  the  domain  of  the  Philoso- 
phy of  Rehgion  which  deals  with  its  rise  and  nature. 

That  there  has  been  a  development  of  Religion, 
the  facts  of  history  furnish  abundant  evidence. 
Hence  evolutionists  of  one  class  have  re- j^  ^j^^  j^j^^^j.^ 
garded  the  history  of  Religion  as  a  natural  a  natural 
science,  and  have  subjected  it  to  the  oper- 
ation of  the  law  of  natural  development.  In  this 
natural  evolution  no  place  has  been  left  for  a  Divine 
purpose.  The  conception  of  a  Divine  Idea  ever 
more  clearly  revealing  itself,  of  a  goal  of  human 
destiny,  is  excluded.  The  Science  of  Religion  is 
not  a  natural  science  in  this  sense  of  the  term.  Re- 
ligion is  indeed  subject  to  the  law  of  evolution,  but 
it  is  an  evolution  which  is  the  ever  clearer  manifes- 
tation of  the  Eternal  Idea. 

The  mechanical  conception  of  development  can 
never  do  justice  to  the  transcendent  worth  of  the 
ideals  of  man.  They  are  Divine  impulses  revealed 
in  a  historic  process.  Teleology  is  so  necessary  for 
the  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  mind,  that 
many  who  accept  natural  development  cannot  con- 
sent to  dispense  with  it. 

The  Science  of  Religion,  Historical  and  Compara- 
tive, enlightens  us  as  to  the  content  and  vaHdity  of 
Religion.  The  recurrence  among  all  peoples  of 
similar  or  identical  customs,  opinions,  objects  of  wor- 


Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


ship,  and  myths,  also,  points  to  a  common  instinct  in 
Content  ^^  ^^^^  ^^  man,  and  reveals  the  power  of 
and  Validity  that  instinct  to  develop,  in  human  prog- 
eigion.  ^^^^^  higher  religious  ideals.  The  ascer- 
tainment of  the  nature  of  religious  manifestations, 
must  be  the  work  of  philosophy ;  but  the  history 
and  comparison  of  religions  reveal  a  religious  capa- 
city which  is  one  of  continuous  advancement,  and  is 
the  fundamental  impulse  towards  society  and  nation- 
ality. 

The  religious  phenomena  which  in  the  study  of 
the  past  of  humanity  we  are  enabled  to  collate,  and 
which,  through  the  work  of  comparative  science,  dis- 
close the  unity  of  religions,  make  it  possible  to  for- 
mulate a  preliminary  definition.  Religion  may  then 
Preliminary  ^^  ^^  ^  general  way  defined  as  A  con- 
Definition  of  sciousuess  of  Higher  Power  or  Powers 
^  *^'°""  upon  whom  man  feels  himself  to  be  de- 
pendent, and  with  whom  he  desires  to  become  united, 
in  order  to  secure  his  present  and  future  welfare. 
Religion  is,  indeed,  a  progress  in  knowledge  of  the 
Ideal-Reality.  The  ideals  of  the  reason,  conscience, 
and  sentiments  of  man  seek  their  fulfilment  in  the 
Ultimate  Reality,  whom  we  name  God.  A  full 
knowledge  of  the  content  of  Religion  cannot  be 
attained  until  growth  is  complete.  But  in  all  stages 
of  its  progress  from  the  lower  to  the  higher,  from  its 
germ  to  its  fulfilment,  the  identity  of  Religion  is  not 
lost.  Primitive  and  modern  Religion  are  one,  in 
different  stages  of  growth.  The  religion  of  him 
who  in  the  words  of  the  Dramatist  might  say. 


Definition  of  Religion.  7 

"  Indian-like, 
Religious  in  mine  error,  I  adore 
The  sun,  that  looks  upon  his  worshipper, 
But  knows  of  him  no  more." 

is  not  in  essence  different  from  that  of  him  who 
bows  in  Westminster  Abbey  or  Notre  Dame.  It  is 
then  possible,  remembering  that  the  subject  is  iden- 
tical in  all  stages  of  its  development,  to  so  define 
Religion  as  to  understand  it  as  the  ground  of  its 
potentialities. 

If,  then,  there  is  a  continuity  of  growth  of  Re- 
ligion from  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  man's  his- 
tory, it  may  be  asked.  Is  not  the  evolution  a  process 
anterior  to  man  ? 

Evolutionists  have  not  hesitated  to  affirm  that 
moral  and  religious  qualities  are  possessed  by  ani- 
mals ;  that  love,  loyalty,  gratitude,  venera-  ^^^^  ^^^_ 
tion,  are  manifested  by  them  towards  man  mais  a  re- 
as  a  god,  and,  in  their  own  societies,  tow-  i>gion? 

ards  the  leader  of  their  own  species.  It  has  been 
said,  however,  in  denial  of  this  affirmation,  that,  of 
the  psychical  states  of  animals  we  know  but  little, 
and  not  being  able  to  put  ourselves  in  their  place, 
we  speculate  in  vain.  However  gradual  the  evolu- 
tion of  psychical  states  in  man  from  those  of  animals, 
Religion  would  seem  to  be  an  experience  only  in  the 
soul  of  man.  Referring  to  the  ingenious  contention 
of  Van  Ende,  that  animals  discern  in  natural  phe- 
nomena the  operation  of  powers  superior  to  man, 
and  are  inspired  with  joy  or  terror.  Count  D'Alviella, 


8  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


who  is  generous  towards  all  theories  which  would 
claim  a  hearing  in  the  court  of  Science,  remarks : 

"  With  M.  de  Pressense  we  shall  decline  to  believe  that  the  dog  is 
religious  until  he  has  combined  with  his  fellows  to  found  a  religion, 
implying  the  desire  to  establish  ideal  relations  with  the  mysterious 
higher  powers.  This  would  require  a  capacity  for  abstraction  and 
generalization  and  a  perception  of  analogies  which  we  could  hardly 
expect  from  an  animal,  even  were  it  Haeckel's  anthropopithecus." 

Confident  that  Religion  is  a  capacity  inherent  in 
the  nature  of  man,  that  what  is  developed  in  physi- 
cal and  social  relations  must  be  present  in  the  germ, 
and  that  the  potentiality  presupposes  actuality  and 
the  real  nature  of  things  must  be  found  in  their 
Final  Cause,  we  conclude  that  Religion  must  be  so 
defined  as  to  account  for  the  phenomena  of  all  the 
religions  of  the  race:  but  science  does  not  as  yet 
enable  us  to  include  in  these  manifestations  the  sub- 
human feelings  as  constituting  Religion.  Gerland, 
von  Hartman,  and  others,  it  has  been  pointed  out  by 
De  la  Saussaye,  grant  that  "  animals  have  religious 
qualities  but  no  true  religion,  because  religious  ob- 
jects are  wanting  to  them." 

The  Philosophy  of  Religion  cannot  be  content 
with  a  conception  of  the  essence  of  Religion  that 

makes  its  origin  to  be  a  merely  natural  or 
dilinernot  human  origin.  Religion  cannot  be  the 
human  satisfaction   only   of   selfish    instincts,    as 

Gruppe  and  Feuerbach  contend,  for  in  its 
highest  expression  it  is  a  surrender  of  self  to  the 
Divine  Will.  To  confound  the  satisfaction  of  re- 
ligious needs,  the  longing  for  the  realization  of  the 


Definition  of  Religion.  g 


higher  ideal  of  character  with  selfishness  is  the  sui- 
cide of  Religion.  Religion  is  indeed  an  affair  of  man 
as  the  subject,  but  as  Dr.  Boyd  Carpenter  remarks, 
"  it  is  also  a  relationship  between  the  Self  and  some 
Other-than-self." 

As  the  spectre  of  the  Brocken  was  only  an  exag- 
geration of  human  forms  as  seen  reflected  upon 
mist,  so  Religion  is  declared  by  Feuerbach  and 
others  to  be  but  man's  worship  of  an  exaggerated 
self,  a  merely  subjective  affair  without  an  objective 
ground.  But  were  Religion  a  subjective  illusion,  an 
illusion,  notwithstanding,  necessary  to  the  progress 
of  the  race,  and  originating  in  man's  conviction  of  its 
necessity  and  utility  for  him  in  his  social  relations 
and  in  the  struggle  of  life,  then  the  reason  for  that 
utility  or  indispensableness  must  be  found  in  the 
Divine  Purpose  in  the  world.  If  Religion  is  felt  to 
be  necessary  to  man's  progress  and  subserves  a  pur- 
pose in  the  Hfe  of  the  race,  it  cannot  be  a  subjective 
illusion,  but  has  its  ground  in  the  Divine  Reality,  and 
is  included  as  one  of  the  forces  of  developing  history, 
an  impulse  from  the  Being  who  reveals  himself  ever 
more  clearly  in  the  advance  of  humanity  obedient  to 
the  Divine  ideals  abiding  in  the  soul. 

The  claim  made  by  Comte  and  his  followers  that 
the  worship  of  Humanity  is  a  religion,  cannot  be 
allowed.  Religion  is  the  worship  of  an  ^,Qj^^g,g ^^j. 
Other-than-Self.     To   claim,  further,   the  ship  of 

title  of  Theism  for  the  worship  of  Hu-  «""^^"'*y- 
manity  is,  as  Dr.  Martineau  affirms,  a  still  greater 
violence,  **a  subversion  of  established  meanings." 


lO  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  saints  of  Comte's  Positive  calendar  are  in  some 
cases  entitled  to  admiration,  but  as  they  are  no  longer 
living  anywhere,  no  longer  able  to  minister  to  those 
who  survive  them,  to  admire  them  is  not  Religion ; 
it  is  but  grateful  recollection.  Even  though  admira- 
tion may  be  exaggerated  into  veneration,  the  living 
can  feel  no  dependence  upon  the  dead  for  aid  or 
sympath)'.  Many  of  the  saints  of  Comte's  calendar, 
moreover,  while  living,  manifested  traits  of  character 
which  must  have  been  revolting  even  to  the  robust 
admiration  for  great  men,  of  which  Mr.  Carlyle  seems 
to  have  been  capable. 

"  Habitual  and  permanent  admiration  "  is  not  Re- 
ligion, else,  as  Martineau  says.  Count  d'Orsay  or 
Beau  Brummel  regarding  themselves  in  a  mirror 
would  be  examples  of  intense  religiousness. 

**  Cosmic  Emotion,"  another  term  for  a  reHgion 
which  has  no  basis  in  that  which  is  beyond  or  above 
Nature,  can  with  as  little  reason  be  denominated 
Religion. 

Regularity  of  Cosmic  Action,  as  observed  in  the 
motion  of  planets,  may  kindle  poetic  feeling,  but  the 
sentiment  of  duty  can  never  be  derived  from  the 
observation  of  the  uniformity  of  the  succession  of 
physical  phenomena. 

Behind  the  regularities  of  the  physical  Universe 
must  be  discerned  the  purpose  of  Goodness,  an  ulti- 
mate ground  of  all  being,  the  source  of  all  our  ideals, 
rational,  moral,  and  spiritual.  If  regularity  of  action 
alone  is  worthy  of  homage,  the  swing  of  a  pendulum 
should  inspire  religious  emotion. 


Definition  of  Religion.  1 1 


Advancing  now  to  more  adequate  conceptions  of 
Religion,  we  find  that  definitions  are  usually  based 
upon  inferences  from  the  study  of  either  the  primi- 
tive or  the  modern  consciousness  of  man.  The  his- 
torian naturally  lays  emphasis  upon  the  myths  and 
customs  of  ancient  peoples,  or  upon  the  manifesta- 
tions of  Religion  among  modern  savage  tribes,  in  the 
formulation  of  a  definition.  The  philosopher  and 
theologian  as  naturally  determine  as  to  the  essence 
of  Religion  from  data  afforded  by  the  study  of  the 
advanced  consciousness  of  man.  A  definition  will 
be  one-sided  when  the  primitive  and  the  later  stages 
of  growth  are  not  taken  together  into  account.  The 
religion  of  primitive  man,  however  low  in  the  scale, 
cannot  be  other  than  that  of  the  modern  worshipper. 
In  the  evolution  the  identity  of  the  subject  is  not 
lost.  *'  The  germ  and  the  finished  product,"  says 
Dr.  Menzies,  "are  the  same  entity,  only  differing 
from  each  other  in  that  the  one  has  still  to  grow 
while  the  other  is  grown." 

The  definitions  of  Religion  which  reveal  the  his- 
toric spirit,  though  they  more  or  less  avail  themselves 
of   philosophy,   may  first  be  considered. 
Amassing  all  facts  to  be  gained  from  the    inspired  by 
study  of  the  primitive  culture  of  man,  of    ^^^  historic 
his  Nature-worship  and  Animistic  beliefs, 
the  historian  is  disposed  to  find  in  fear  and  a  sense 
of  dependence  the  explanation  of  religious  customs,    i 
It  is  conceded  that  a  sense  of  dependence  is  one  oi       y 
the  elements  of  Religion  ;  but  a  sense  of  dependence  I 
does  not  exhaust  its  contents. 


12  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


Even  Schleiermacher,  who  laid  stress  upon  the 
feeling  of  dependence, — and  who  drew  the  shaft  from 
Hegel,  that  the  dog  must  be  more  religious  than 
man,  if  a  sense  of  dependence  alone  constitutes  Re- 
ligion,— liberates  the  scope  of  his  definition  in  the 
further  statement  that  "  Religion  is  the  immediate 
consciousness  of  all  that  is  finite  within  the  Infinite, 
and  all  that  is  temporal  within  the  Eternal."  Here 
manifestly  the  philosophical  spirit  prevails,  and  a 
free  range  is  given  to  all  the  feelings  and  conduct 
of  man  in  his  desire  for  union  with  the  Power  on 
which  he  believes  himself  to  depend. 

"  If  the  common  kernel  of  Religion  in  all  its  forms," 
says  Professor  Pfleiderer,  *'  is  that  reference  of  man's 
life  to  the  world-governing  Power  which  seeks  to 
grow  into  living  union  with  it,  this  is  actually  present 
at  the  very  lowest  stage  of  the  primitive  mythical 
consciousness." 

Mr.  Darwin,  in  the  historical  spirit,  says:  *' The 
feeling  of  religious  devotion  is  a  highly  complex  one, 
consisting  of  love,  complete  submission  to  an  exalted 
and  mysterious  superior,  a  strong  sense  of  depend- 
ence, fear,  reverence,  gratitude,  hope  for  the  future, 
and  perhaps  other  elements."  * 

D'Alviella,  who  also  may  be  classed  with  those 
who  consider  the  facts  of  primitive  life  as  of  the 
highest  importance  for  the  definition  of  Religion, 
makes  the  cautious  statement :  "  Religion  is  the  con- 
ception man  forms  of  his  relations  with  the  super- 

*  Quoted  by  Professor  Max  Mailer,  Gifford  Lectures,  1888,  p.  65, 
note  on  p.  69  ;  p.  188, 


Definition  of  Religion.  13 


human  and  mysterious  Power  on  which  he  believes 
himself  to  depend."  This  would  seem  to  be  an  in- 
adequate statement,  because  it  fails  to  account  for 
the  reality,  and  regards  only  the  phenomena,  of 
Religion. 

If  Religion  is  only  a  conception  of  man,  and  there- 
fore the  conception  may  be  true  or  false,  then  the 
Science  of  Religion  may  dismiss  its  interest  in  the 
phenomena.  All  phenomena  postulate  a  reality. 
Religion  must  be  based  on  reahty  in  the  nature  of 
the  world,  or  its  manifestations  will  indicate  no  per- 
manent active  Principle,  nor  will  they  deserve  the 
attention  of  Science  which  seeks  reality  as  the  ground 
of  all  appearance.  Religion  is,  therefore,  more  than 
a  "  conception  "  which  may  have  no  basis  in  reality ; 
it  is  a  consciousness  of  reahty.  But  Professor  D'Al- 
viella  concedes  that  feeling  or  sentiment  must  have 
preceded  any  formula  of  primitive  theology,  that  a 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Gods  while  it  seems 
logically  antecedent  to  feeling,  *' since  we  cannnot 
love  or  fear  a  being  before  having  conceived  the  idea 
of  its  existence,"  is  yet  a  subsequent  act  of  reflection. 
He  compares  religious  feeling  to  the  consciousness  on 
the  part  of  the  infant,  of  the  approach  of  persons. 
He  experiences  joy  or  alarm  long  before  there  is  any 
act  of  reasoning  concerning  his  relations  to  them. 
Obviously,  in  the  light  of  this  concession,  Religion 
should  be  defined,  not  as  a  conception  of  relations, 
but  a  consciousness  of  relation  to  the  superior  and 
mysterious  Powers. 

Professor  Max  Miiller,  who  blends  the  historical 


^ 


14  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief. 


and  comparative  with  the  philosophical  method, 
must,  however,  be  classed  with  those  who 
MTi^Muiier  ^^>^  greatest  stress  upon  the  rise  of  the 
religious  consciousness  of  primitive  man. 
In  his  discussions  of  Vedic  Religion,  and  in  his  vol- 
umes. Physical  Religion  and  Anthropological  Religion, 
the  historical  spirit  is  predominant.  Under  the  stress 
of  criticism  he  has  revised  his  earlier  definition  of 
Religion  as  the  "  perception  "  (by  primitive  man)  "  of 
the  Infinite,"  restricting  now  that  perception  ''  to 
such  manifestations  as  are  able  to  influence  the  moral 
conduct  of  man."* 

In  seeking  thus  to  assuage  the  demands  of  man's 
practical  reason,  he  admits  that  at  first  he  laid  stress 
upon  his  cognitive  powers,  to  the  neglect  of  the  part 
played  in  Religion  by  his  sentiments  and  conduct. 
It  is  obvious  that  he  regarded  the  primitive  man  as 
too  much  of  a  philosopher.  His  "  wide  net "  of 
definition  seemed  to  be  not  wide  enough  to  catch 
and  hold  all  the  phenomena  of  primitive  Religion. 
His  later  statement  approaches  a  satisfactory  formu- 
lation, if  the  desire  of  man  for  union  with  the  Infinite 
IS  included,  and  also  the  expression  of  that  desire  in 
his  cults.  He  admits,  "  The  Infinite /^r  se  as  a  mere 
negative  would  have  had  no  interest  for  primitive 
man  ;  but  as  the  background,  as  the  support,  as  the 
subject  or  the  cause  of  the  finite  in  its  many  mani- 
festations, it  came  from  the  earliest  period  of  human 
thought." 

Professor  Miiller  does  not,  it  is  obvious,  contend 

''''  Physical  Religion,  p.  294. 


Definition  of  Religion.  1 5 


that  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  is  as  definitely  developed 
in  primitive  as  in  advanced  consciousness,  but  that 
the  feeling  of  the  Infinite  is  more  or  less  kindled  by 
the  observation  of  the  appearances  of  Nature.  His 
use  of  the  name  "  Infinite  "  to  express  the  object  of 
all  religious  perceptions  has  not  escaped  criticism. 
He  prefers  this  word  to  the  word  "  Absolute/*  which 
is  charged  with  an  Hegelian  meaning ;  and  also  to 
the  word  **  Transcendent,"  which  can  with  difficulty 
be  dissociated  from  the  school  of  Kant.  The  term 
"Infinite"  possesses  the  advantage  of  having  the 
term  "  finite  "  for  its  opposite,  and  Professor  Miiller 
admits  that  what  theologians  mean  by  the  "  Divine  " 
is  in  reality  the  same.  It  is,  then,  manifestly  unjust 
to  attribute  a  scholastic  sense  to  the  term  as  he  uses 
it ;  rather  should  it  be  taken  as  the  Non-finite,  or  that 
which  is  behind  the  finite,  but  to  call  this  unlimited 
or  Infinite  the  Unknowable,  Miiller  says  "  is  to  do 
violence  to  the  verb  to  know."  * 

M.  R^ville  also  must  be  classed  with  those  who 
belong  to  the  historical  school,  and  who  find  that  all 
religious  development  supposes  a  primitive  germ  in 
the  soul.  In  his  analysis  of  the  religious  sentiment 
he  studies  profoundly  the  psychical  states  of  primi- 
tive man,  discovers  the  germinal  principle  of  Re- 
ligion, which,  in  its  growth,  experiences  no  breach  of 
continuity,  but  unfolds  itself  and  enriches  itself  with 
new  forms,  modifications,  and  numberless  applica- 
tions. It  is  a  principle  which  is  the  "  initial  fact  and 
directing  force  "  which  attracts  into  its  orbit  all  other 

'^  Physical  Religiotiy  p.  297. 


1 6  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


elements,  itself  being  the  substantial  element.  "  Re- 
ligion," as  defined  by  Reville,  "  is  the  determination 
of  human  life  by  the  sentiment  of  a  bond  uniting 
the  human  mind  to  that  mysterious  Mind  whose 
domination  of  the  world  and  of  itself,  it  recognizes, 
and  to  whom  it  delights  in  feeling  itself  united."  It 
may  be  thought,  however,  that  primitive  man  could 
hardly  conceive  of  the  Power  as  "  Mind,"  that  the 
content  of  the  word  is  seized  only  by  a  more  ad- 
vanced psychology,  and  that  the  primitive  concept 
was  simply  that  of  living  agency. 

.  Of  those  who  represent  the  philosophi- 

inspired  by  cal  tendency  in  the  treatment  of  Religion, 
Philosophy.  Professor  Pfleiderer  may  first  be  mentioned 
as  holding  that 

"religion  in  its  essence,  is  least  of  all  to  be  recognised  in  its  histori- 
cal beginnings  ;  it  reveals  itself  only  through  its  actualisation  in  the 
course  of  its  historical  development,  and  most  distinctly  on  the 
highest  culminating  point  of  that  development  in  Christianity.  .  .  . 
Whoever  would  describe  the  essence  of  the  oak,  will  not  derive 
its  marks  from  the  acorn  but  from  the  full  grown  tree  ;  and  whoever 
would  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the  essence  of  man,  will  not  limit  him- 
self to  the  observation  of  the  infant,  nor  will  he  choose  as  his  models 
the  savages  who  are  to  be  found  in  the  crude  state  of  nature.  On 
the  contrary,  he  will  give  heed  to  what  the  human  race  has  developed 
in  the  course  of  thousands  of  years  ;  and  in  the  highest  representa- 
tives of  the  moral  and  intellectual  culture  of  man  he  will  find  the 
criterion  by  which  to  judge  of  what  the  human  species  is  by  its  con- 
stitution, or  what  its  essence  contains  in  itself."  * 

The  question  may  be  asked,  Shall  we  determine  the 
essence  of  Religion  from  a  study  of  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual culture  of  the  nineteenth  century,  or  wait 

♦Introduction,  Gifford Lectures,  1894. 


Definition  of  Religion.  17 


till  a  thousand  or  ten  thousand  years  shall  have  passed 
away?  Does  not  the  study  of  primitive  psychology 
teach  us  something  concerning  the  essence  of  Reli- 
gion ?  Are  not  the  acorn  and  the  oak  in  essence 
identical,  that  essence  being  manifest  in  earlier  and 
later  stages  of  growth  ?  And  we  recall  the  remark 
of  Professor  Pfleiderer,  that  "  if  the  kernel  of  religion 
in  all  its  forms  is  that  reference  of  man's  life  to  the 
world-governing  Power  which  seeks  to  grow  into 
living  union  with  it,  this  is  actually  present  at  the 
lowest  stage  of  the  primitive  mythical  consciousness." 

We  may  then  affirm  that  the  essence  of  Religion, 
the  subject,  or  principle  which  is  identical  in  all 
stages  of  advance  to  a  clearer  manifestation  of  itself, 
is  implicit  in  this  mutual  desire  for  union  of  the 
Power  above  with  man,  and  that  this  primitive  sen- 
timent as  thus  expressed,  is  the  "  union  with  God  " 
which  now  constitutes  our  highest  conception  of 
Religion.  The  essence  of  Religion  must  involve 
the  desire  for,  and  search  for,  a  higher  ideal,  and 
both  primitive  and  modern  Religion  reveal  this  active 
Divine  principle  in  man's  soul. 

The  constant,  unfolding  element  of  Religion  is 
this  desire  for  the  Ideal,  and  if  the  ideals  of  the  first 
ages  were  not  as  clear  and  high  as  those       „  ,   .,. 

o  ....  Primitive 

cherished  by  the  Christian  of  to-day,  it  is  ideas  essen- 
as  true,  also,  that  our  conceptions  of  the  *^^"^  Divme. 
Divine  Reality  are  nobler  than  they  were  a  decade 
or  two  ago,  and  will,  hereafter,  be  still  more  worthy 
of  the  Creator.  It  were,  indeed,  a  hardship  if  the 
essence  of  Religion,  which  consists  in  trust,  hope, 


1 8  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


and  a  desire  for  that  which  ought  to  be,  instead  of 
that  which  is,  can  be  understood  only  when  all 
human  history  shall  be  closed,  and  the  highest  de- 
velopment of  man  shall  have  arrived. 

If  the  essence  of  Religion  can  be  known  only 
through  the  study  of  man  in  his  highest  state  of 
culture,  we  can  have  no  evidence  that  man  in  the 
early  ages  was  a  religious  being.  We  can  speak  of 
primitive  man  as  thus  religious  only  because  both 
ancient  and  modern  religion  are  in  essence  one,  but 
in  different  stages  of  growth  and  of  clearness  of 
apprehension.  Another  illustrious  writer,  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau,  approaches  the  question,  What  is  the  essence 
of  Religion,  from  a  quite  exclusively  philosophical 
point  of  view: 

"  I  do  not  mean,"  he  writes,  "  to  set  up  one  exclusive  source  for 
the  faiths  and  worships  of  mankind  ;  or  to  contradict  any  inquirer 
who  may  trace  their  genesis  to  the  '  idea  of  the  infinite,'  or  the  '  sense 
of  absolute  dependence,'  or  the  startling  impressions  of  external  na- 
ture, or  the  memory  of  ancestors,  or  the  images  of  dreams.  In  the 
absence  of  any  experience  which  can  test  such  hypotheses,  they  must 
remain  speculations  neither  verified  nor  disproved.  .  .  .  As  I  do 
not  wish  to  speak  evil  of  dignities,  I  will  not  disparage  the  resources 
of  the  so-called  '  science  of  religions  '  for  ultimately  determining  this 
question.  But  meanwhile  we  have  some  psychological  knowledge  of 
the  springs  and  varieties  of  religious  conceptions  in  ourselves ;  and 
there  seems  no  reason  why  we  should  neglect  to  consult  these  indica- 
tions of  experience  as  to  the  lines  of  tendency  that  pass  from  our  own 
nature  to  feel  after  the  Divine." 

Dr.  Martineau  then  defines  Religion  as  *'  Belief  in 
an  ever-living  God — that  is,  of  a  Divine  Mind  and 
Will  ruling  the  universe,  and  holding  moral  relations 
with  mankind." 


Definition  of  Religion,  19 


The  march  from  the  consciousness  of  early  man 
to  the  man  of  the  university  is  a  long  one.  Dr. 
Martineau  is,  indeed,  right  if  he  means  that  the  phil- 
osophical conception  was  implicit  in  the  primitive 
consciousness ;  that  what  man  has  attained  in  cul- 
ture existed  as  potency  from  the  first ;  that  what 
comes  out  at  the  end  must  have  existed  in  the  germ. 
But  an  exclusively  philosophical  definition  antici- 
pates man's  growth  in  knowledge,  and  cannot  justly 
be  affirmed  to  be  a  concept  of  his  rude  understand- 
ing. The  oak  is,  in  a  real  sense,  in  the  acorn,  though 
an  acorn  is  not  an  oak,  only  in  time  becomes  the 
oak.  Dr.  Martineau,  whose  services  to  the  Philoso- 
phy of  Religion  are  very  great,  concerns  himself 
with  its  outcome  rather  than  with  its  genesis,  leaving 
the  History  of  Religion  to  be  treated  by  others.  He 
is  quite  right  in  assuming  that  primitive  mental 
processes  must  be  interpreted  in  accordance  with 
the  demands  of  later  psychology.  The  Science  of 
Religion  must,  however,  not  rest  alone  upon  our 
modern  philosophy  of  consciousness.  The  facts  of 
Anthropology  and  History  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count, and  the  History  and  Philosophy  of  Rehgion 
are  not  to  be  sundered.  An  adequate  Philosophy 
of  Religion  must  be  founded  on  a  broad  knowledge 
of  the  facts.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  in  the 
interest  of  philosophy,  that  when  the  historian  has 
collated  the  facts  of  primitive  Religion,  it  remains  to 
determine  the  essence  of  Religion. 

And  De  la  Saussaye  reminds  us  that  "  primitive 
and   *  essential '   are   not    synonymous    terms,   and 


20  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


though  our  philosophy  of  its  essence  may  mould 
our  views  of  its  origin,  it  would  be,  however,  a  peti- 
tio  principii  to  maintain  that  the  essence  of  Religion 
must  clearly  show  itself  in  the  earliest  forms  under 
which  it  appears."  That  the  essence  of  Religion 
reveals  itself  less  clearly  than  in  later  stages  of 
progress  may  be  freely  admitted.  If  we  open  the 
brilliant  work  of  Professor  Edward  Caird,  The  Evolu- 
tion of  Religion^  we  have  the  "  root  or  basis  "  of  Re- 
ligion given  in  the  three  ideas,  viz.,  the  subject,  the 
object,  and  the  Unity  in  which  they  blend.  The 
Ego  or  self,  on  the  one  hand  ;  on  the  other  the  en- 
vironment constituted  by  the  external  world  and  all 
the  things  and  beings  within  it,  and  the  Unity  of 
the  subjective  and  objective  in  the  Infinite.  This  is 
a  process  extending  through  all  history,  and  religions 
are  phases  of  this  process.  Therefore  we  are  to  seek 
for  no  common  element  in  all  religions.  A  definition 
of  Religion  must  "  express  an  idea  which  is  fully  re- 
alized only  in  the  final  form  of  Religion."  We  must 
seek  a  "  principle  which  is  bound  up  with  the  nature 
of  man,  and  which  manifests  itself  in  all  stages  of 
his  development."  The  pendulum  of  Religion  thus 
vibrates  in  human  progress  between  the  subjective 
and  objective,  seeking  rest  in  the  Infinite  Unity. 

The  Science  of  Religion  is  indebted  to  Professor 
Caird  for  many  profound  suggestions,  but  this  phil- 
osophy of  Religion  seems  too  schematic.  It  appears 
to  be  an  excessive  demand  that  we  shall  wait  for  a 
definition  of  Religion  and  to  understand  its  obscure 
beginnings,  until  history  shall  be  finished,  until  the 


Definition  of  Religion.  2  i 


"  full  growth  and  expansion  of  this  mighty  tree, 
under  whose  shadow  the  generations  of  men  have 
rested."  And  Professor  Caird  significantly  remarks : 
''  It  need  not,  therefore,  be  a  matter  of  wonder  if  an 
examination  of  the  facts  of  religious  history,  taken  in 
relation  to  their  psychologic  possibility,  should  lead 
us  to  a  definition  of  Religion  quite  beyond  the  reach 
of  uncivilized  men." 

Religion  exists  from  the  first  as  a  consciousness  of 
relations  to  the  mysterious  Powers  or  Agents,  and  its 
definition  can  be  given  in  terms  of  primi-  Religion  a 
tive  psychology.  Such  definition  need  consciousness 
not  wait  until  the  conception  of  the  most  ° 
advanced  psychology  shall  be  reached.  All  that  can 
be  demanded  for  such  a  statement  of  Religion  is,  that 
the  later  conception  shall  arrive  in  the  progress  of 
knowledge,  and  that  it  shall  be  found  to  be  implicit 
in  the  formula  based  upon  primitive  data.  The  goal 
of  Religion  is  indeed  to  explain  its  genesis,  the  Im- 
pulsive Force  is  identical  with  the  Supreme  End. 
The  progress  of  rational,  ethical,  and  spiritual  ideals 
more  and  more  makes  clear  what  is  essential  to  Re- 
ligion. The  deepest  and  purest  realizations  of  its 
essence  do  not  appear  in  the  primitive  stages  of  evo- 
lution, as  explicitly  manifest,  but  are  latent  in  them. 
The  religious  consciousness  is  present  from  first  to 
last  in  the  development  of  the  soul  of  man.  The 
progress  of  religious  development  seems,  with  Pro- 
fessor Caird,  to  be  a  logical  rather  than  a  living  proc- 
ess. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  obvious,  that  the  definition  of 


22  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


Religion  which  shall  do  justice  to  the  truth  of  God's 
presence  in  human  history  from  the  first, 
deffnm^if.^**^  which  shall  not  exclude  from  all  partner- 
ship in  the  Divine  recognition  the  primi- 
tive peoples  who  have  so  earnestly  felt  after  God  if 
haply  they  might  find  him,  should  be  stated  in  terms 
which  may  express  the  religious  sentiment  both  of 
primitive  and  modern  humanity.  That  definition 
has  already  been  given.  Religion  is  the  consciousness 
of  a  mysterious  higher  Power  or  Pozvers  upoji  ivJiom 
man  feels  himself  to  be  dependent,  and  with  whom  he 
desires  to  become  united,  in  order  to  secure  his  present 
and  future  well-being. 

This  form  of  thought  does  not  emphasize  the  ob- 
jective side  of  Religion,  making  the  fear  of  Power 
to  become  the  motive  to  conduct.  It  includes  the 
conception  of  a  Power,  in  union  with  whom  all  the 
ideals  of  man  may  be  realized.  It  is  therefore  a 
Power  which  always  transcends  the  highest  concep- 
tions of  morality,  and  in  every  stage  of  man's  prog- 
ress towards  the  Ideal  of  Truth  and  Goodness  is 
worthy  of  his  devotion. 

The  idea  of  a  government  of  the  world  is  included 
in  the  formula,  and  it  implies  the  movement  of  all 
man's  faculties,  cognition,  feeling,  and  will  towards 
this  Power,  and  the  hope  of  another  life  as  well. 

In  reviewing  thus  the  definitions  of  writers  of  the 
historical  and  philosophical  schools,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  concur  with  those  who  think  that  the  essence 
of  Religion  can  not  be  known  until  its  development 
shall  be  completed.     That  would  delay  our  under- 


Definition  of  Religion,  23 


standing  of  its  nature  to  an  indefinite  future.  What 
Religion  is,  man  must  experience  from  the  first. 
The  ideal  in  its  origin  is  a  low  one,  but  with  the  ad- 
vance of  culture,  becomes  clearer  and  nobler.  Re- 
ligion in  its  essence  is  a  constant  element  which  takes 
upon  itself  higher  and  richer  forms  with  every  step 
of  progress. 

In  the  words  of  De  Pressense : 

"  La  Religion  est  done  une  tendance  generale  dominante  de  notre 
ame  qui,  s'emparant  des  elements  divins  que  renferment  la  raison 
speculative,  la  raison  pratique,  le  sentiment,  ne  les  laisse  pas  dans 
r  isolement,  les  re'unit,  les  fond  dans  une  mema  synthese,  dans  une 
meme  effort  dont  le  resultat  est  precisement  la  vie  en  Dieu." 


CHAPTER   II. 

PREHISTORIC  AND  HISTORIC  DATA,  AND  THEIR  BEAR- 
ING UPON  THE  STUDY  OF  RELIGION. 


RELIGION,  in  its  essence,  can  be  understood 
only  by  a  study  of  its  origins,  and  its  histori- 
cal development.     Though  a  Divine  factor  in  his- 
tory, it  is  yet  natural,  in  the  sense  of  a  development 
in  time,  and  in  world-relations.     Natural 

Religion  of       ^    .  .11  r  1 

divine  origin,  Scieuce  canuot  mdccd  account  for  the 
has  a  natural  phenomena  of  Religion,  for  Religion  is 
a  transcendent  principle,  and  while  it  can 
account  for  the  facts  with  which  Science  is  occupied, 
the  latter  cannot  go  behind  the  phenomena  of  the 
world.  And  Evolution  itself  involves  the  metaphysi- 
cal conception  of  a  process,  and  cannot  dispense 
with  a  transcendent  Power,  which  is  at  once  a  pri- 
mal and  a  final  cause.  The  signification  of  Evolu- 
tion is  that  of  a  metaphysical  ideal,  which  has  to  be 
realized  through  the  process  of  the  world.  The 
study  of  language  and  of  mythology  reveals  a  devel- 
opment in  accordance  with  natural   law — in    other 

24 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data.  25 


words,  the  movement  of  Divine  purpose  in  a  uni- 
form process  wliich  has  a  history. 

We  may  interrogate  the  rehgious  consciousness 
of  primitive  rnan,  observing  the  facts  of  history 
which  attest  its  growth.  But  to  understand  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  of  primitive  man,  we  must 
study  the  soul  in  its  more  developed  life.  Wide  as 
is  the  interval  between  the  primitive  and  the  later 
civilized  ages,  the  laws  of  the  psychical  activity  may 
be  assumed  to  have  been,  in  both,  identical,  and  we 
may  reflect  the  rays  of  intelligence  from  the  study 
of  existing  man  to  that  of  man  in  the  earliest  time. 
History  and  philosophy  must  not  then  be  sundered, 
and  if  we  must  find  the  clue  to  lead  us  through  the 
obscurity  of  the  early  time  by  reflecting  upon  our 
own  experience,  it  is  also  a  necessity  to  study  the 
primitive  phases  of  Religion,  to  understand  our  own 
religious  life.  In  its  origin,  is  latent  the  subsequent 
development  of  Religion,  and,  it  may  be  added, 
a  true  Philosophy  of  Religion.  ''  That  theory  will 
come  nearest  to  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  the 
beginnings  of  Religion  which  possesses  the  highest 
degree  of  psychological  probability,  and  which  at  the 
same  time  explains  in  the  most  natural  way  the 
various  facts  of  primitive  history."  *  The  facts  of 
primitive  Religion  are  legitimate  material  for  Sci- 
ence, and  they  take  their  place  in  the  natural  historic 
development,  but  in  a  comprehensive  philosophical 
view  of  the  world  they  are  seen  to  be  facts  of  Divine 
origin  and  value. 

*  Professor  Otto  Pfleiderer, 


26  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief. 


The  mechanical  conception  of  Nature,  with  which 
Physical  Science  is  ever  legitimately  occupied,  is  in 
a  higher  effort  of  philosophy  made  to  dis- 
of°Nrtur°"^  close  "the  gently  constraining  power  of 
the  one  Eternal  Idea  in  which  we  live  and 
are."  The  Divine  principle  of  Religion  must  then 
be  studied  in  its  operation  amidst  primitive  con- 
ditions of  life,  and  in  all  ages  it  will  be  found  devel- 
oping amidst  physical  and  social  relations  which 
act  as  a  check  or  stimulus,  but  in  the  end  impel  it 
to  an  ever-clearer  revelation  of  its  nature.  "  We 
should  be  expressing,"  says  Lotze,  "  but  a  part 
of  the  truth  in  lauding  the  improvement  of  the 
human  race  as  attributable  to  the  influence  of  re- 
ligion ;  we  should  have  equally  to  admit  that  the 
progress  of  humanity  due  to  the  action  and  re- 
action of  society,  and  to  the  development  proper  to 
secular  life,  on  the  one  hand  has  suppHed  religious 
belief  with  new  questions  and  subjects  of  considera- 
tion, and  on  the  other  by  its  quiet,  obstinate,  and 
ever-present  resistance,  has  blunted  the  edge  of  those 
injurious  extravagances  into  which  the  world-inter- 
preting, world-creating  flights  of  devoutly  inspired 
speculation  were  apt  to  run."  * 

While  then  the  question  of  the  origin  of  Religion 
is  essentially  a  philosophical  one,  and  not  one  of 
Science  which  deals  only  with  given  facts,  and  can- 
not reach  behind  them  to  the  Divine  purpose,  the 
study  of  the  vestiges  of  prehistoric  and  historic  man 
is  necessary  to  an  adequate  construction  of  the 
Philosophy  of  Religion. 

♦  Microcosmus,  Book  V^III.,  chap.  iv. 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data,  2/ 


Certain  anthropologists  have  affirmed  that  anterior 
to  man  the  elements  of  Religion  may  have  been  pos- 
sessed by  the  lower  orders  of  life,  and 
that  primitive  man  was  lower  in  the  scale  science  of  Re- 

.  .  ,  ligion  not  con- 

than  prehistoric  man,  whose  vestiges  have     cerned  with 
been   discovered.     For  missing  links  to      sub-human 

^  qualities. 

connect  primitive  man  with  the  animals 
we  still  wait,  and  shall  probably  wait  in  vain.  Pro- 
fessor Max  Miiller  asks  why  the  challenge  of  Virchow 
to  Haeckel  has  not  been  answered.  To  the  denial 
by  the  former  that  the  ascent  or  derivation  of  man 
from  the  animals  is  an  acquisition  of  science,  no  reply 
has  been  made.  Science  obviously  can  know  noth- 
ing of  the  period  when  man  was  "  losing  his  fur  and 
gaining  his  intellect."  Let  Caliban  be  found  half- 
man  and  half-beast,  evolution  is  but  the  method  of 
Divine  purpose,  and  when  manhood  arrives,  religion 
arrives  with  it. 

The  antiquity  of  the  remains  of  early  men,  dating 
as  some  writers  contend  from  the  end  of  the  Terti- 
ary, or  at  the  latest,  from  the  Quaternary  age,  roused 
the  hopes  of  materialists.  The  animal  origin  of  man 
seemed  about  to  be  proved.  The  Science  of  Re- 
ligion is  not  vitally  concerned  with  the  question 
whether  or  not  animals  possess  reason  and  Religion. 
Were  it  to  be  established  that  they  possess  them, 
we  should  only  be  impelled  to  hold  a  higher  opinion 
of  animals.  That  the  religious  capacity  has  always 
been  arriving,  aggrandizes  the  fact  of  its  arrival. 
The  mental  and  spiritual  powers  of  man  imply, 
however,  a  source  beyond  the  physical  order,  even 
though  their  actual  development  may  have  occurred 


28  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


in  the  history  of  a  physical  Universe,  though  from 
the  dull  sense  of  the  mollusk  there  may  have  been  an 
ascent  to  human  consciousness.  Behind  protoplasm 
is  the  Divine  "  Protoplast."  If  then,  man  stands  at 
the  summit  of  the  hierarchies  of  plant  and  animal 
life,  if  by  subtle  increments  reason  and  conscience 
have  at  last  appeared  in  man,  it  may  be  afifirmed 
that  his  real  origin  dates  from  the  hour  he  is  capable 
of  a  free  moral  act.* 

In  the  light  of  Hoffding's  statement,  that  the 
inner  unity  of  the  soul  which  constitutes  man  a  psy- 
chical individuality  is  the  practical  limit  of  science, 
we  cannot  be  hopeful  of  any  future  proof  that  man, 
in  the  whole  content  of  his  mind,  is  derived  from 
the  lower  orders  of  life,  and  ultimately  from  mere 
matter. 

We  can  gather  into  focus  a  few  scattered  rays 
from  the  prehistoric  period.  Neither  the  traditions, 
nor  the  discovered  remains  afford  us 
man'^"'*^°  more  than  scanty  materials.  With  these 
science  must  be  content  until  more  dis- 
coveries shall  be  made.  In  the  present  condition  of 
Science,  the  question  of  the  antiquity  of  man  can- 
not, with  precision,  be  answered.  It  is  somewhat 
discouraging  to  find  that  man's  origin,  fixed  by  the 
conservative  calculations  of  some  men  of  science  at 
an  age  removed  only  15,000  years  from  our  own,  by 
the  judgment  of  others,  is  assigned  to  an  antiquity 
ten  times  as  distant  from  our  era.  Professor  D.  G. 
Brinton   regards  as  meagre  the  evidence  that  man 

*  See  note  I. 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data,  29 


lived  in  the  Tertiary  period.  That  he  did  live  in  the 
Glacial  or  Pre-Glacial  age,  he  concedes,  and  the  Gla- 
cial age  is  fixed  by  him  at  a  period  about  fifty  thou- 
sand years  back.  He  also  affirms  that  *'  the  fable  of 
the  lost  Atlantis  and  the  theory  of  Haeckel  as  to 
the  submerged  Lemurian  are  not  tenable.  Eurasia 
was  certainly  man's  original  birthplace." 

Mortillet  is  held  to  be  in  error  by  De  la  Saussaye, 
for  affirming  that  Religion  is  a  modern  discovery, 
only  15,000  years  old,  founding  this  opinion  upon 
the  absence  of  amulets  and  of  the  care  for  the  dead 
in  the  Palaeolithic  age.  Even  the  division  of  the 
prehistoric  period  into  Palaeolithic  and  Neolithic 
time  seems  to  be  questioned.  Steenstrup,  Nillson, 
and  others  have  divided  prehistoric  times  into  three 
periods,  namely,  the  stone  age,  the  bronze  age,  and 
that  of  iron,  but  according  to  De  Nadaillac  the  lines 
of  division  waver  before  the  scrutiny  of  science. 

In  America  there  has  been,  it  would  appear,  no 
bronze  or  iron  age,  and  one  scientist,  Alsberg,  con- 
tends that  iron  was  the  first  metal  used,  founding 
his  contention  upon  the  sixty-one  prehistoric  iron 
foundries  discovered  in  Switzerland,  and  suggesting 
that  the  discovery  of  iron  objects  is  only  rare  be- 
cause they  soon  perish  by  rust.  De  Nadaillac  pre- 
fers the  division  of  the  prehistoric  period  into  the 
two  ages  of  rough  and  polished  stone.* 

Such  are  the  exiguous  data  from  which  we  derive 
our  knowledge  of  the  religion  of  prehistoric  man. 
Science  is  with  reason  cautious  in  retrospective  con- 

♦  Manners  and  Monuments  of  Historic  Peoples,  De  Nadaillac. 


36  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


elusions.  That  there  are  evidences,  however,  that 
man  possessed  a  capacity  for  Religion,  there  seems  to 
be  no  reason  for  doubting,  though  some  have  erected 
too  imposing  an  edifice  upon  so  narrow  a  base.  Con- 
clusions from  amulets  must  be  hesitant;  those  de- 
rived from  the  places  of  burial  are  quite  assuring. 
Burial  itself  is  an  act  of  affection  and  of  faith,  im- 
plying both  Morality  and  Religion,  sympathy  with 
kindred,  and  belief  in  their  continued  existence.  The 
bones  of  the  infant  placed  in  the  father's  skull,  and 
the  weapons  and  tools  laid  in  the  tomb,  admit  of  no 
satisfactory  explanation  apart  from  the  belief  in  a 
continued  life  and  a  possible  reunion  of  the  family. 
The  perforated  crania  of  the  NeoHthic  dead,  a  rude 
kind  of  trepanning,  according  to  Broca,  "  proves  be- 
yond question  that  the  man  of  that  age  believed  in 
a  life  in  which  the  dead  retained  their  individuality, 
for  these  amulets  were  placed  within  the  skull  of 
the  dead  man,  and  were  intended  to  secure  for  him 
happiness  and  exemption  from  evil."  Even  if,  as 
has  been  claimed,  trepanning  was  performed  upon 
the  living  for  medicinal  purposes,  the  deposits  in  the 
skulls  of  the  dead  still  give  force  to  the  argument. 
M.  Quatrefages  concludes  that  the  belief  in  another 
life  and  in  continued  personality  existed  in  the  earliest 
times.  The  animism  of  prehistoric  man,  the  belief 
in  the  departure  of  the  spirit  into  another  stage,  de- 
rives a  strong  confirmation  from  the  animistic  beliefs 
of  modern  savage  and  early  civilized  peoples.  It  is 
true  that  the  psychical  states  of  the  modern  savage 
cannot  be  claimed  as  wholly  identical  with  those  of 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data.  31 


prehistoric  man,  but  customs  among  modern  savages, 
so  analogous  to  those  which  we  discover  in  the  pre- 
historic age,  imply  similar  beliefs  which  gave  rise 
to  the  customs.  Edgar  Quinet  eloquently  writes : 
"  What  a  future  I  begin  to  discern  for  this  strange 
animal,  hardly  knowing  how  to  build  for  himself  a 
hut  better  than  a  wild  beast's  lair,  and  yet  concern- 
ing himself  to  provide  an  eternal  home  for  his  dead  ; 
I  seem  to  be  touching  the  first  stone  on  which  rests 
the  edifice  of  things  Divine  and  human.  After  such 
a  beginning,  all  that  remains  is  easy  of  belief." 
Even  certain  members  of  the  school  of  transformism, 
who  set  aside  the  claims  of  reason  and  morality  to 
an  origin  transcending  Nature,  and  who  relate  man 
in  all  his  development  to  his  physical  environment, 
admit  that  Religion  is  coeval  with  his  origin.  Ger- 
ard de  Rialhe  says  :  "  La  croyance  a  quelque  chose 
d'inh^rent  k  notre  personality  qui  survit  a  notre  ex- 
istence ou  qui  la  continue  dans  un  autre  monde, 
parait  ^tre  universellement  r^pandue  dans  Thumanit^ 
et  avoir  pris  naissance  avec  elle."  * 

In  the  West,  also,  are  found  remains  of  Palaeolithic 
man.  "  After  the  elimination  of  all  doubtful  exam- 
ples," abundant  proof  remains  of  the  existence  of 
man  on  the  American  continent  in  a  Palaeolithic  as 
well  as  an  early  Neolithic  age.  Sir  Daniel  Wilson, 
however,  regards  it  as  an  open  question  whether  the 
Palaeolithic  age  of  the  New  World  is  equally  remote 
in  time  with  that  of  the  Eastern  hemisphere.f 

*  Mythologie  Comparie. 

\  Sir  Daniel  Wilson,  New  Atlantis. 


32  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


Thus  there  is  scarcely  a  region  upon  the  earth's 
surface  which  may  not  be  claimed  as  once  the  abode 
of  man  in  a  state  like  that  of  savagery.  Prehistoric 
Archaeology  places  in  our  hand  a  torch,  the  light  of 
which,  it  may  be,  is  feeble,  but  which,  nevertheless, 
is  able  to  guide  us  through  the  obscurity  of  the 
primitive  age.  That  man  has  set  forth  from  the 
lowest  conditions,  and  has  marched  in  the  way  of 
Religion  and  culture,  feeling  the  Divine  impulse  of 
a  higher  destiny,  the  manifold  discoveries  of  Archae- 
ology overwhelmingly  demonstrate.  From  the  gravel 
beds  of  Europe,  the  laterite  of  India,  the  drift  of 
America,  relics  of  man  find  their  way  into  the  muse- 
ums of  the  world.  Vestiges  found  in  terramares, 
lake  dwellings,  and  shell  mounds  combine  with  me- 
galithic  structures  of  later  times  to  attest  the  vast 
antiquity  of  his  origin.'*  The  Chaldean  narrative  of 
the  tree  of  life  and  the  deluge  of  waters  centuries 
anterior  to  that  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  is  a  story  of 
yesterday,  when  we  compute  the  antiquity  of  primi- 
tive man.  Both  the  cylinders  of  Babylonian  art  and 
those  of  Assyria  frequently  represent  the  tree  of 
life,  as  shown  by  the  so-called  black  stone  of  Lord 
Aberdeen,  and  by  that  from  Babylonia,  which  offers 
us  the  picture  of  the  tree  of  life,  the  man  and  the 
woman,  and  behind  the  latter  the  erect  serpent. 

The  composer  of  the  Hebrew  narrative,  eliminating 
the  archaic  puerilities  of  the  Chaldeo-Assyrian  or  Tu- 
ranian account,  has  invested  it  with  moral  sublimity. 

The  crucial  question  is.  Was  he  inferior  or  superior 

*  See  note  II. 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data.  33 


to  savage  man  ?  This  is  the  pivot  of  the  contention 
between  the  defenders  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall 
of  primitive  man  and  the  theory  of  continuous  ad- 
vance. The  pressure  upon  the  mind  from  primitive 
the  conclusions  of  the  sciences  of  Biology,  Man  and 
Anthropology,  and  other  branches  of^^^^^'^^"^ 
study,  is  vanquishing  doubt  that  development  is  a 
Divine  Law,  and  that  it  includes  in  its  sweep  the 
facts  both  of  Nature  and  of  human  life.  The  evolu- 
tion of  the  world  in  its  physical,  animal,  and  human 
history  is  the  progressive  march  of  Divine  purpose, 
a  conception  of  Philosophy  which  can  alone  give 
ideal  completion  to  thought  concerning  the  world 
and  the  nature  of  man. 

The  doctrine  of  a  Fall  may  be  successfully  de- 
fended as  a  precosmic  event,  and  there  is  primitive 
no  necessary  conflict  between  this  doctrine  savagery 
and  the  historical  evidence.  ^""^  '^"  ^^"• 

A  conservative  theology,  however,  in  the  interest 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall  of  man,  in  time,  con- 
tends, as  does  De  Pressens^,  that  the  troglodyte 
was  superior  to  the  savage  of  the  present  day ; 
and  if  he  is  permitted  to  select  his  examples,  the 
case  may,  perhaps,  be  fairly  made  out.  That  pre- 
historic man  possessed  the  fortitude  to  survive  crises 
of  climate  and  great  cataclysms  of  nature  in  the 
Glacial  age,  must  be  conceded.  We  may  reason- 
ably hesitate  to  affirm,  with  Sir  Daniel  Wilson,  that 
he  ''  evinces  powers  of  observation  and  a  freedom  of 
hand  in  sketching  from  nature,  such  as  would  be 
found  exceptional  among  pupils  of  our  best  training 


34  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


schools  of  art."  We  cannot  assume  that  all  prehis- 
toric peoples  were  in  like  measure  endowed  with  the 
aesthetical  insight,  though  some  of  them  seemed  to 
have  had  it  in  their  ruder  stages  of  development. 
The  argument  would  prove  too  much,  for  if  the 
troglodyte  surpasses  the  man  of  to-day  in  the  art  of 
sketching,  and  if  many  persons  who  have  now  at- 
tained high  culture  lack  the  ability  to  sketch,  the 
latter  would  have  cause  to  envy  the  troglodyte. 

It  is  not  probable  that  primitive  men  were  upon 
the  same  level,  even  within  the  bounds  of  their 
own  family  group,  and  the  exceptional  genius  who 
sketched  the  hairy  mammoth  upon  ivory,  may  have 
been  the  Raphael  of  his  tribe.  We  may  justly  con- 
clude that  the  modern  savage  state  is  to  a  great  ex- 
tent the  analogue  of  the  primitive  state,  although 
behind  the  modern  savage  may  lie  a  history  of  alter- 
nate advance  and  relapse.* 

But  though  the  child  and  the  savage  may  not  be 
the  exact  representatives  of  the  first  men,  the  prog- 
ress of  science  makes  it  impossible  on  other  grounds 
not  to  regard  the  man  of  the  stone  age  as  at  least 
7iot  superior  to  the  savage  of  to-day.  Nor  is  it  to  be 
forgotten  that,  if  the  modern  savage  is  in  some  as- 
pects of  his  life  higher  in  the  scale  of  being  than  the 
Palaeolithic  man,  the  latter,  also,  may  have  been 
higher  in  the  scale  than  his  progenitors,  whose  un- 
recorded history  stretched  into  the  **  dark  and  back- 
ward abysm  of  time."  Whether  these  retrospective 
judgments  of  anthropologists  derived  from  the  psy- 
*  See  Note  III. 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data.  35 


chlcal  disclosures  of  modern  savage  life,  as  to  the 
psychical  states  of  man  of  the  early  stone  age,  be 
cogent  or  the  opposite,  still  the  evidence  gained  from 
vestiges  of  prehistoric  life  and  the  postulates  of  the 
Law  of  development,  force  us  to  the  conviction  that 
the  man  of  the  early  stone  age  was  in  a  stage  of  being 
lower  than  that  of  modern  savagery,  and  that  far  back, 
clouded  with  the  mists  of  antiquity,  some  Tertiary 
or  Post-Tertiary  being,  his  inferior,  may  have  existed. 
Waiving  the  assumption  of  a  possible  human  or  pre- 
human ancestor,  the  scanty  knowledge  we  have  of 
man  of  the  early  and  later  stone  ages,  forbids  the 
claim  that  he  was  the  superior  of  the  modern  savage. 
The  indications  of  nobleness,  or  of  aesthetic  capacity, 
discerned  in  the  vestiges  of  the  troglodyte  or  men  of 
the  cave,  are  even  more  manifest  in  modern  savage 
life.* 

The  doctrine  of  the  Fall  of  man,  however,  is  not 
bound  up  with  the  anthropological  question.  We 
shall  have  occasion  in  a  subsequent  chapter  to  speak 
of  it  as  a  picture  of  a  state  of  human  consciousness 
in  man's  effort  to  reach  an  ideal.  Meanwhile,  that 
man  has  risen  from  animality,  is  as  yet  only  a  prob- 
ability of  Science ;  but  were  it  shown  to  be  true,  it 
is  still  a  divinely  ordered  progress  that  we  observe, 
and  whether  he  emerges  from  the  zoological  order  or 
sets  forth  from  a  point  higher  up,  he  has  a  Divine 
origin. 

The  Theologian  and  the  Evolutionist  are  in 
exact   accord   in   accepting  a  state   of  mental  and 

*  See  Note  IV. 


36  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief, 


moral  poverty,  from  which  man  has  begun  his  march 
down  the  ages.  Both  accept  progress  as  fact  and  law. 
The  Law  of  progress,  however,  receives  a  blow  in  the 
theological  assumption,  that  a  moral  catastrophe 
hurled  man  down  from  primitive  excellence,  and  that 
history  has  been  for  the  most  part  a  lapse  from  purely 
monotheistic  worship  into  an  ever-in-creasing  con- 
fusion of  ideas  concerning  the  Divine  Being. 

It  is  the  weakness  of  the  traditional  view  that  both 
declension  and  progress  are  alternately  assumed  to 
Traditional  ^^  ^^^  Law  of  history.  A  vindication  of 
doctrine  of     Providencc  must  be  based  on  one  or  the 

eo  ogy.  Q^j^gj.  theory ;  it  cannot  be  founded  on 
both  of  them.  The  unanimity  of  the  sciences  is 
ominous  for  the  traditional  view  derived  from  the 
comparatively  modern  story  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 

The  Philosophy  of  Religion,  however,  is  not  con- 
cerned to  dispute  the  facts  of  history.  Behind  the 
historic  process  is  the  Divine  Purpose,  without  which 
progress  could  not  have  been  possible  through  mere 
struggle  for  existence  and  through  natural  selection. 

Every  year  Science  is  enriched  by  new  accessions 
of  evidence  of  the  truth  of  historic  development. 
Folk-lore  gives  account  of  customs  and 
proof  of  un-  mauucrs,  and  Archaeologists  exhume  cy- 
interrupted  Hndcrs  of  clay  whicli  unveil  the  past  and 
open  up  a  vista  which  fatigues  the  imag- 
ination. Linguistic  Palaeontology  shows  that  words 
and  their  roots  constitute  an  unpurposed  history 
handed  on  from  age  to  age.  Ethnology,  surveying 
the  races  of  the  earth,  accumulates  invincible  proof, 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data,  37 


and  Ethnographical  comparison  swells  our  knowledge 
to  riches.  The  historic  period  has  been  pushed  back 
by  the  decipherment  of  cuneiform  and  hieroglyphic 
records,  and  by  this  startling  accession  of  knowledge 
of  the  past,  the  proof  of  a  purposive  development  of 
human  progress  is  made  impressive.  As  long  as 
one  remains  sullenly  in  the  cloisters  of  conservative 
thought,  and  declines  to  accept  what  has  been 
achieved  in  the  many  realms  of  research,  he  may 
still  feel  the  potent  spell  of  the  old  conception  of 
history.  But  when  one  goes  forth  into  the  bracing 
air  of  reality  and  with  candor  regards  the  accumula- 
tion of  data,  the  most  obstinate  doubts  must  yield. 
Within  historic  periods  of  time  the  evidence  is  cumu- 
lative and  irresistible  for  the  belief,  that  there  has 
been  an  advance  from  lower  to  higher  religious  ideals. 
The  granite  fact  of  the  survivals  in  higher  religions 
of  the  imperfect  conceptions  of  primitive  cults  is  not 
to  be  conjured  away  by  any  device  of  survival  of 
reasoning.  Fetichistic  survivals  may  still  primitive 
be  detected  in  the  stories  of  children,  and  ^  ^"^^"  ^* 
even  in  the  forms  of  ecclesiastical  Christianity.  Dean 
Stanley  in  his  Christiaii  Institutions — faithful  to  his- 
tory— has  shown  how  usages  and  superstitions  have 
survived  the  lapse  of  centuries,  some  of  them  being, 
beyond  doubt,  of  pagan  origin.  The  older  Scripture 
of  the  Bible  abounds  with  vestiges  of  pre-Semitic 
religions.  That  there  has  been  no  breach  of  conti- 
nuity in  the  development  of  Religion  must  be  con- 
ceded, and  historian  and  theologian  alike  prove 
recreant  to  truth,  if  they  do  not  compare  the  evi- 


38  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


dences  of  Religion  in  all  stages  of  culture.  Doctrines 
and  rites  have  an  ancient  history,  and  are  not  to  be 
considered  as  wholly  later  products  of  particular 
religions.  The  past  was  big  with  the  present,  and 
the  present  is  big  with  the  future,  and  a  devout  be- 
liever in  Providential  development  cannot  refuse  to 
study  the  significance  of  each  rite  and  doctrine  in  its 
place  in  the  Divine  plan  of  progress. 

Ethnographic  research,  retracing  the  history  of 
Language,  Ethics,  and  Laws,  arrives  at  forms  so  low 
and  simple,  and  so  clearly  discerns  in  later  stages  of 
culture  the  primitive  elements  surviving,  that  it  be- 
comes certain  that  from  lower  to  higher  stages  prog- 
ress has  been  continuous.  Language  as  clearly 
betrays  in  its  primitive  construction  the  undeveloped 
psychical  states  of  the  men  who  used  it  in  early  his- 
toric time,  as  their  lake  dwellings  reveal  their  social 
conditions,  or,  as  now,  the  coins  of  small  value  tell  of 
the  poverty  of  the  community  in  which  they  circu- 
late. Indeed,  Language  still  labors  under  the  incu- 
bus of  its  rude  material  metaphors  and  imperfect 
analogies,  which  were  more  closely  adapted  to  the 
primitive  life  than  to  later  times. 

It  is  obvious,  also,  that  our  moral  ideas  are  rooted 
in  an  obscure  antiquity,  in  which  the  standard  of 
Present  stand-  right  was  a  low  onc,  and  our  higher  moral 
ard  of  moral-  ^Q^^gg  ^rc  no  morc  to  bc  sundered  from 

ity  and 

primitive  the  lowcr  moral  judgments  of  ancient 
conceptions,     ^j^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  ^f  ^j^^  Cathedral  of 

St.  Peter  can  hang  in  the  air  without  the  edifice  and 
its  foundations  to  hold  it  aloft.     The  history  of  cus- 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data,  39 


tomary  and  written  Law  tells  the  same  story  of  de- 
velopment from  primitive  conditions  of  society  and 
its  conceptions.  Civilized  law  is  to  be  traced  clearly 
to  Barbaric  law,  and  the  latter  was  not  suddenly  de- 
vised, but  points  to  still  ruder  origins  in  prehistoric 
times.  Philosophy,  also,  presents  the  appearance  of 
a  chain  of  ideas  reaching  back  to  the  primitive  con- 
ception of  Spiritual  Cause.  "  Philosophy,'*  it  has 
been  said,  "  is  the  history  of  Philosophy.'*  Afiirma- 
tive  or  negative,  Philosophy  has  never  been  able  to 
break  entirely  with  the  conclusions  of  primeval  man. 
Its  course  has  been  determined  by  the  first  reflec- 
tions of  man,  and  Plato  dealt  with  problems  which 
had  occupied  his  predecessors.  From  Plato  and 
Aristotle  to  Kant  and  Hegel,  and  from  the  latter  to 
Hamilton  and  Lotze,  the  chain  of  ideas  is  closely 
linked.  Philosophy  is  thus  a  child  of  the  race,  and 
has  with  the  race  advanced  through  constant  libera- 
tion to  the  higher  stages  of  culture.  The  dynasty 
of  philosophic  thought  is  more  ancient  and  enduring 
than  the  dynasties  of  the  Pharaohs.  Philosophy  is 
a  Divine  impulse  in  man.  He  was  made  to  think 
concerning  himself  and  the  Universe,  and  to  seek 
the  ultimate  Reality.  It  was  inevitable  that  Phil- 
osophy from  its  first  well-nigh  inarticulate  expression 
should,  like  Morals  and  Religion,  be  evolved  under 
the  pressure  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  in  contact  with 
outward  conditions,  and  thus  reveal  through  all  time 
an  unbroken  continuity. 

When  we  enter  the  field  of  Biology  and  take  ac- 
count of  the  progress  of  life  through  Geologic  ages, 


40  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


until  it  arrives  at  its  highest  forms,  it  is  manifest  that 
both  Anthropology  and  Biology  are  subject  to  the 
same  evolutionary  Law. 

The  utterance  of  Mr.  Tylor  carries  with  it  great 
force. 

"  In  the  scientific  study  of  Religion,  which  now  shows  signs  of  be- 
coming for  many  a  year  an  engrossing  subject  of  the  world's  thought, 
the  decision  must  not  rest  with  a  council  in  which  the  theologian,  the 
metaphysician,  the  biologist,  the  physicist,  exclusively  take  part.  The 
historian  and  the  ethnographer  must  be  called  upon  to  show  the  he- 
reditary standing  of  each  opinion  and  practice,  and  their  enquiry 
must  go  back  as  far  as  antiquity  or  savagery  can  show  a  vestige,  for 
there  seems  no  human  thought  so  primitive  as  to  have  lost  its  bearing 
upon  our  own  thought,  nor  so  ancient  as  to  have  broken  its  connection 
with  our  own  life." 

It  is  true,  however,  that  Progress  may  not  thus  far 
have  been  clearly  understood.  Is  it  a  progress  of  uni- 
what  is  versal  humanity  in  physical  welfare,  know- 
Progress  ?  ledge,  and  virtue,  or  is  it  only  the  realization 
of  a  higher  type  of  exceptional  men  of  the  race  ?  This 
much  is  clear,  that  the  civilization  of  Europe  is  in 
advance  of  that  of  Asia,  that  the  Englishman  of  to- 
day is  far  in  advance  of  the  denizens  of  the  British 
Isles  in  the  time  of  the  Caesars,  and  that  the  subjects 
of  the  Emperor  of  Germany  are  far  in  advance  of 
the  Teutons  who  swarmed  in  the  forests  centuries 
before  Caesar  and  Labienus  hewed  their  way  through 
them  with  the  legions  of  Rome. 

The  tendency  of  culture  within  the  historic  period, 
observed  in  all  its  phases  by  historian,  anthropolo- 
gist, and  students  of  language,  compels  us  to  extend 
the  Law  of  development  to  the  prehistoric  age.     It 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data.  41 


is  necessary  to  study  but  a  small  segment  of  an  arc 
to  determine  the  nature  of  its  curve.  The  knowledge 
gained  of  human  progress  within  the  historic  period 
assures  us  that  the  same  natural  and  psychologic 
laws  were  in  operation  in  the  first  ages.  Science, 
which  ahke  with  Religion  deals  with  Divine  truth, 
makes  it  increasingly  clear  that  there  are  four  stages 
of  progress  fairly  differentiated,  that  of  Primitive 
man,  that  of  Savage  man,  that  of  the  Barbarian,  that 
of  Civilized  man.  That  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
continued  progress  is  seen  to  be  an  irrational  conten- 
tion, for  even  the  skeptic  with  regard  to  progress  will 
hardly  deny  that  for  the  present  civilization  of  cer- 
tain peoples  to  lapse  into  the  unquestioned  initial 
savagery  would  be  an  inconceivable  disaster.  It 
would  be  to  overlook  the  irony  which  inspired  Mr. 
Burke's  Vindication  of  Natural  Society,  and  to  ac- 
cept, as  science,  the  sentimental  theory  of  Rousseau. 
History  is  not  a  shipwreck,  but  a  progress,  and 
that  progress  is  a  Redemption  as  well.  The  conti- 
nuity of  the  world  is  another  word  for  the  Eternal 
Immanence  and  Activity  of  Divine  Goodness.  All 
things  seek  the  goal  of  Eternal  Wisdom  and  Love, 
and  the  words  of  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt  are  more 
and  more  seen  to  be  true, ''  Der  Mensch  knilpft  imnier 
Vorhandenes  an'' 

NOTE    I. 

Hoff  ding's  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  353  :  "  From  a 
purely  psychological  standpoint  it  is  necessary  to  go  a 
step  farther.  Even  though  the  individual  organism, 
which  in  spite  of  its  completeness  and  relative  inde- 


42  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


pendence  is  still  a  republic  of  cells,  were  to  be  explained 
as  compounded  out  of  elements,  and  its  origin  made  in- 
telligible through  the  law  of  the  persistence  of  energy, 
this  would  not  explain  the  individual  consciousness,  the 
formation  of  a  special  centre  of  memory,  of  action,  and 
of  suffering  (the  ego).  That  it  is  possible  for  such  an 
inner  centre  to  come  into  being  is  the  fundamental  prob- 
lem of  all  our  knowledge.  Each  individual  trait,  each 
individual  property,  might  perhaps  be  explained  by  the 
power  of  heredity  and  the  influence  of  experience  ;  but 
the  inner  unity  to  which  all  elements  refer,  and  by  virtue 
of  which  the  individuality  is  a  psychical  individuality, 
remains  for  us  an  eternal  riddle.  It  is  impossible  to 
apply  to  the  mental  province  anything  analogous  to  the 
persistence  of  energy.  Psychical  individuality  is  one  of 
the  practical  limits  of  science." 

NOTE   II. 

Count  G.  Maspero  records  the  conviction  {Dawn  of 
Civilization)  that,  "  nothing  or  all  but  nothing,  has  come 
down  to  us  from  the  primitive  races  of  Egypt ;  we  can- 
not with  any  certainty  attribute  to  them  the  majority 
of  the  flint  weapons  and  implements  which  have  been 
discovered  in  various  places.  The  Egyptians  contin- 
ued to  use  stone  after  other  nations  had  begun  to  use 
metal.  They  made  stone  arrow-heads,  hammers,  knives, 
and  scrapers,  not  only  in  the  time  of  the  Pharaohs,  but 
under  the  Romans  and  during  the  whole  period  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  manufacture  of  them  has  not  yet 
entirely  died  out." 

NOTE    III. 

De  la  Saussaye,  however,  thinks  that  as  savages  have 
an  unwritten  history,  the  comparison  of  their  state  of 
life  with  the  childhood  of  the  race  is  a  metaphor,  rather 


Prehistoric  and  Historic  Data,  43 


than  an  analogue.  He  inverts  the  argument  derived 
by  historians  from  the  survivals  of  savage  customs 
among  civilized  peoples,  and  supposed  to  prove  that 
civilization  rests  upon  savagery  as  a  foundation.  Not 
only,  according  to  De  la  Saussaye,  are  "  savage  customs 
to  be  detected  amongst  civilized  races  .  .  .  but  traces 
and  indications  of  higher  ideals  are  not  wanting  amongst 
savages."  Gerland  finds  among  savages  positive  indi- 
cations of  a  former  civilization. 

NOTE    IV. 

It  is  probable  that  the  primitive  man  may  have  pos- 
sessed the  mysterious  capability  of  progress  which  the 
modern  savage  has  lost.  The  latter  needs  an  external 
impulse  towards  a  higher  stage  of  culture  ;  the  primi- 
tive man  did  not.  Even  the  ancestor  of  the  modern 
ape — it  has  been  suggested  by  a  friend  of  the  writer 
— may  have  possessed  a  capacity  for  development  which 
the  modern  ape  has  lost,  and  is  doomed  to  remain  an 
animal.  It  is  not  infrequently  observed  that  both  indi- 
viduals and  nations  reveal  now  a  capacity  or  incapacity 
for  progress. 

Anthropologists,  however,  in  contending  for  the  infe- 
riority of  primitive  man  are  betrayed  into  much  looseness 
of  logic,  as,  for  example,  when  discovering  that  certain 
modern  savages  indulged  promiscuity,  they  promptly 
conclude  that  it  was  formerly  universal,  and  that  the  first 
men  lived  in  promiscuous  relations  of  the  sexes.  It  can 
never  be  shown  that  at  any  time  among  savage  peoples 
it  was  a  universal  practice  ;  besides,  the  laws  of  physiology 
demonstrate  that  monogamous  peoples  are  most  likely  to 
survive.  If  the  promiscuous  relation  cannot  be  shown 
to  have  been  universal,  the  presumption  is  against  its 
primitive  existence. 


CHAPTER  III. 

WAS  THE   BEGINNING   OF  HUMAN    HISTORY  A 
MORAL  CATASTROPHE? 

THE  historic  development  of  Religion  is  not,  of 
necessity,  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of 
human  Sin.  The  tragic  experience  of  the  race  is  the 
result  of  a  misuse  of  man's  freedom.  The  initial 
Two  conce  -  ^lomcnt  of  an  assertion  of  independent 
tions  of  a  selfhood  in  opposition  to  the  Divine  Self 
^*"*  may  be  considered  as  a  precosmic  fact  or 

a  fact  of  historic  time.  This  sinful  opposition  of  the 
finite  spirit  to  the  will  of  the  Infinite  may  be  viewed, 
Precosmic  fifst,  as  a  prccosmic  act.  The  atoms  of 
Fall.  physical  science  no  longer  held  to  be  ulti- 

mate realities,  must  be  regarded  as  either  centres  of 
Divine  energy,  or,  with  Leibniz  and  Lotze,  as  spir- 
itual monads  endowed  with  selfhood.  The  physical 
Cosmos  is  the  aspect  assumed  by  these  spiritual 
units  in  their  interactions,  and  the  cosmical  relations 
may  be  an  expression  of  the  conflict  of  the  finite 
personalities  with  the  Divine  Personality.  They 
may  be  regarded,  not  as  imprisoned  in  matter,  but 

44 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History,  45 


in  their  wilful  opposition  to  absolute  goodness,  as 
under  a  Divine  discipline,  and  in  their  relations  to 
each  other,  become  conscious  of  themselves  as  con- 
stituting a  world-order.* 

The  history  of  the  world  would  then  become  an  evo- 
lution of  Spirits,  through  Nature  as  a  state  of  stress, 
upward,  out  of  conflict,  into  a  reconciliation  with  the 
Divine  Will.  The  belief  entertained  by  theologians 
of  the  first  centuries,  that  matter  was  a  form  of  evil, 
might  thus  contain  a  certain  amount  of  truth.  But 
evil  is  "  ultimately  psychical,"  and  *'  matter  is  the 
condition  of  spirits  which  require  the  constraint  of 
matter."  The  history  of  Religion,  upon  this  hy- 
pothesis, is  the  history  of  Spirits  ascending  in  a 
cosmic  evolution  towards  ultimate  spiritual  perfec- 
tion, or,  as  both  progress  and  retrogression  are  in- 
volved in  an  evolutionary  process,  towards  a  final  sep- 
aration by  degeneration  from  the  Spiritual  Ground 
of  all  being.  The  theory  of  precosmic  sin,  held  by 
some  of  the  early  fathers,  would  thus  explain  the  low 
beginnings  of  Religion  and  the  continuous  advance  of 
man  towards  higher  spiritual  conditions.  The  Phi- 
losophy of  Religion  is  not  debarred  from  availing 
itself  of  this  hypothesis  by  anything  in  the  Sacred 
Writings,  and  many  of  the  most  devout  theologians 
have  found  comfort  in  this  explanation  of  the  evil  in 
the  world.  That  precosmic  spirits  did  sinfully  assert 
their  selfhood,  is  not  found  in  the  poetry  of  Milton 
alone,  but  in- the  first  pages  of  the  Old  Testament.f 
Again,  the  idea  of  a  Fall  may  well  find  its  justi- 
*  Note  I.  f  Note  11. 


46  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief, 


fication  in  the  consciousness  of  a  dualism  within  the 

soul,  a   struggle   against   evil  or  lawlessness  in  the 

effort  to  realize  the  ideal   which   evermore  haunts 

the  mind  (the  Divine    Spirit  bein^  im- 

Conscious  ,       ^  . 

failure  to  re-  mancnt  iu  the  reason  and  conscience),  and 
ahze  the  Ideal,  therefore  the  conviction  is  ever  imperative 
that  harmony  of  soul  is  to  be  found  only  in  the 
union  of  man  with  his  Creator. 

The  sense  of  sin  as  experienced  by  early  mankind 
is  clearly  a  consciousness  of  a  higher  Power  with 
whom  man  is  not  always  in  accord.  Professor  A. 
Reville  *  finds  the  spur  to  the  religious  acts  of  sacri- 
fice and  expiation  in  the  consciousness  of  man  that 
he  is  not  what  he  ought  to  be,f  does  not  do  what  he 
ought  to  do,  and  that  fear  of  chastisement  plays  a 
great  part  in  everything  which  impels  him  to  seek  in 
religion  a  synthesis  of  the  contradictions  of  his  des- 
tiny. The  rise  of  sacerdotal  orders,  the  expiatory 
rites,  have  their  origin  in  the  desire  for  a  more  per- 
fect harmony  with  the  Powers  above  him.  As  man 
gains  a  higher  ideal,  finding  also  that  progress  is  at- 
tended with  effort  and  sorrow,  the  perfection  which 
is  sought  is  fancied  to  be  something  which  once  ex- 
isted and  has  been  lost,  a  descent  from  an  age  of 
gold  to  one  of  bronze  or  of  iron.  Classic  legends 
have  influenced  austere  minds  like  St.  Augustine, 
and  Christian  dogmatics  have  borrowed  this  concep- 
tion of  a  golden  antiquity. 

*  Prolegomena,  p.  288. 

■}•  There  is  a  fall  in  man's  self-esteem  when  he  gains  the  vision  of  a 
new  ideal. 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History »  47 


The  poets  of  Latium  in  their  despair,  seeing  only 
retrogression  from  a  higher  to  a  lower  civic  life,  dwell 
fondly  upon  the  idea  that  the  early  ages  were  those 
in  which  justice  and  virtue  were  perfectly  realized. 
The  ideal  society  is  thus  transferred  from  the  future 
to  the  past.  All  peoples  dream  of  a  golden  past, 
and  long  for  a  restoration  in  the  future. 

The  Fall  may  be  conceived  also  as  a  drama  enacted 
in  the  personal  soul.  The  first  falsehood,  or  act  of 
insurgence  against  parental  love,  is  a  de-  individual 
cree  of  exile  from  the  Garden  of  Eden,  experience  of 

rfii  •  /•     •  1*11  conflict. 

1  he  new  consciousness  of  sin,  which  dawns 
upon  the  hitherto  innocent  child,  is  the  cherubic 
sword  flashing  athwart  the  path  of  return.  The 
abode  and  exile  are  personifications  of  moral  states. 
As  men  wearied  by  civic  conflicts,  and  the  hard  strug- 
gle in  the  marts  of  trade,  make  pilgrimages  to  the 
rustic  spots  where  they  first  saw  the  light,  and  roamed 
the  fields,  and  admired  the  stars,  so  all  souls  respons- 
ive to  the  Divine  Spirit  look  back  to  childhood  as  a 
paradise  and  sigh  for  the  early  innocence.  And  all 
peoples  dream  of  a  past  of  simple  and  innocent  man- 
ners, because  the  conflict  of  good  and  evil  suggests  a 
future  of  perfection. 

The  truth,  impHcit  in  the  doctrine  of  a  Fall,  is 
that  man  possessed  the  innocence  of  an  undeveloped 
being.  The  innocence  of  the  child  not  Primitive 
yet  able  to  discriminate  right  from  wrong,  innocence  lost 
— in  whom,  however,  there  is  a  capacity  ^^  progress. 
for  such  discernment,  and  who  is  at  first  the  sport  of 
natural  impulse, — is  not  the  innocence  of  the  adult 


48  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


who,  conscious  of  good  and  evil,  as  in  opposition, 
resists  temptation  and  maintains  a  moral  character. 

There  is  a  loss  of  innocent  naturalness  when  man 
begins  to  think  and  choose  in  free  conduct,  but  with- 
out such  a  beginning  of  thought  and  free  choice  the 
achievement  of  personal  character  and  a  historical 
progress  of  the  race,  seem  alike  inconceivable.  The 
truth  imbedded  in  the  sublime  allegory  of  Genesis 
may  lie  in  the  fact  which  science  can  justly  not  wish 
to  controvert,  that  somewhere,  in  a  primitive  age, 
man  may  have  lived  in  rudimental  conditions,  with 
few  wants  in  some  Arcadian  realm,  with,  as  yet,  no 
consciousness  of  transgression  in  an  insurgent  free 
act,  guided  by  healthful  natural  instincts  and  not 
yet  oppressed  by  the  horde  of  natural  evils  which  in 
his  later  progress  he  causes  to  spring  up  around  him. 
Driven  forth  by  increasing  numbers  to  contend  with 
hard  conditions  of  the  planet,  in  countries  remote 
from  his  tropical  birth-place,  he  wrestled  with  wave 
and  storm  and  glacier,  and  with  axe  and  lance  of 
stone  warded  off  the  beasts  of  prey  who  menaced 
his  existence. 

But  if,  according  to  traditional  theology,  his  first 
estate  was  one  of  perfect  character  and  definite 
Distress  of  knowledge,  not  only  have  we  to  confront 
thought         Scripture  itself,  which  asserts  that  he  did 

caused  by  ^ 

traditional  not  know  good  from  evil  before  he  ate  the 
doctrine.  forbidden  fruit:  more  than  that,  we  im- 
port into  theology  a  great  distress,  and  cast  doubt 
upon  the  Divine  goodness;  for  how  can  we  explain 
the  terrible  hardships  of  the  long  and  weary  ages  of 
stone  and  iron,  into  which  the  inexperienced  ances- 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History,  49 


tor  of  the  race  was  plunged  by  a  Divine  impulse  to 
know,  which  overmastered  his  feeble  powers ;  a  con- 
flict which  even  Christian  thought  now  approves  as 
a  divine  means  of  progress.  The  devout  thinker 
will  always  shrink  from  assailing  the  traditions  of 
faith,  until  the  assured  progress  of  knowledge  shall 
compel  him  to  substitute  other  and  more  solid 
grounds.  But  the  faculties  of  man  are  not  given 
him  to  mislead  him ;  a  humble  trust  in  the  veracity 
of  his  understanding  is  an  imperative  duty.  To  ad- 
here to  an  unscientific  view  of  history,  in  order  to 
maintain  a  modus  vivendi  in  accord  with  traditions 
which  the  progress  of  knowledge  proves  to  rest  upon 
insecure  bases,  is  an  abdication  of  manhood.  As 
Genseric  spread  his  sail  in  quest  of  perhaps  an  un- 
righteous conquest,  and  with  unscrupulous  piety 
exclaimed  "  whithersoever  God  will  take  us,"  so, 
he  who  ventures  upon  the  sea  of  truth  must  in  a 
humble  trust  abandon  himself  to  the  currents  of 
Divine  Reason  fearless  of  man's  censure,  and  con- 
scious of  a  devout  purpose,  say  also :  "  Whitherso- 
ever God  shall  lead  me." 

The  doctrine  of  man's  original  perfection  has  been 
watered  down  under  the  pressure  of  advancing 
knowledge,  until  it  differs  little  from  the  Modification 
conception  of  man's  primitive  character  by  theology, 
maintained  by  anthropologists.  The  perfection  thus 
diluted  by  theology,  seems  inadequate  to  the  pur- 
pose for  which  it  is  advocated.  It  is  now  held  to  be 
hardly  more  than  an  innocent  state,  innocent  of 
transgression  not  only,  but  of  the  distinctions  of 
good  and  evil,  until  after   an  experiment   is  made 


5o  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


which  is  essential  to  progress.  Thus  Lenormant, 
the  eminent  French  historian,  whose  efforts  to  ad- 
just the  Roman  Catholic  theology  to  the  facts  of 
Archaeology  subjected  him  to  ecclesiastical  suspicion, 
accepts  the  "  hard  and  miserable  conditions "  of 
primitive  life  as  no  longer  to  be  questioned,  but 
would  save  the  doctrine  of  man's  original  dignity 
by  denying  that  he  was  an  abject  being.  According 
to  his  view,  man  from  the  first  possessed  faculties 
worthy  of  respect,  an  instinct  for  art,  affections  for 
his  kindred,  and  a  behef  in  immortality,  all  of  which 
anthropologists  grant.  He  thinks  the  abyss  between 
man  and  the  animal  is  not  to  be  crossed,  that  in  the 
strata  of  the  earth,  pithecoid  man  will  never  be 
found  by  those  whose  **  bizarre  pride  "  inclines  them 
to  seek  the  monkey  for  an  ancestor  rather  than  accept 
the  dogma  of  the  Fall.  And  Lenormant  rests  upon 
the  "  perhaps  "  that  this  prehistoric  savage  state  with 
so  much  of  human  dignity  and  achievement  mani- 
fested in  it,  and  which  must  have  existed  to  account 
for  the  formation  of  languages  and  societies,  was 
preceded  by  a  vastly  more  ancient  state  which  was 
one  of  peace  and  sinlessness.  And  thus  the  Divine 
anger  condemned  the  first  man  to  all  the  rigors  and 
dolors  of  the  Glacial  age.* 

The  primitive  Monotheism  is  now  by  many  con- 
servative thinkers  relegated  to  so  remote  an  an- 
primitive  tiquity,  in  order  to  make  place  for  the 
Monotheism.  {^^^^  q£  Archacology,  that  it  becomes  a 
violent  presupposition.  An  eminent  professor  of  the 
Catholic  University  of  Louvain  has  written  : 

♦  Ilistoire  ancienne  de  L' Orient,  p.  242,  245. 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History.  5 1 


"  The  belief  in  a  primitive  Monotheism  only  concerns  a  period  too 
remote  for  historical  researches  ever  to  reach.  .  .  .  The  original 
Monotheism  does  not  affect  any  of  the  religious  transformations  and 
vicissitudes  which  history  can  trace,  and  which  may  become  the  sub- 
ject of  our  studies.  The  worship  of  material  objects  and  the  corre- 
sponding state  of  intelligence  may  perfectly  well  be  admitted  by  us 
all,  as  existing  in  an  age  which  is  lost  in  the  night  of  time,  and  from 
which  man  successively  raised  himself  at  several  centres  to  loftier 
conceptions."  * 

And  M.  de  Pressens^,  the  illustrious  defender  of 
Protestant  orthodoxy  in  France,  while  adhering  to 
the  belief  in  a  moral  lapse  in  a  remote  age, 

^       1-11  1  r  Universal 

yet  admits  the  subsequent  prevalence  of  a  savagery  con- 
universal  savagery,  and  thinks  it  the  initial   '^^^^^  ^^  ^** 

.  Pressens6. 

pomt  for  "  the  reconstruction  with  some 
degree  of  precision  of  the  social  and  religious  condi- 
tion of  the  rude  infancy  of  humanity,  of  which  they 
are  themselves  the  survivals."  This  "rude  infancy 
of  humanity  "  lying  back  of  the  savage  state  would 
seem  to  be  all  that  the  science  of  development  can 
require,  and  the  Monotheism  of  such  a  rude  infancy 
hardly  deserves  the  name.  D'Alviella,  from  whom 
these  statements  have  been  derived,  refers  also  to 
another  eminent  defender  of  Roman  Catholic  ortho- 
doxy, the  Abb6  de  Broglie,  who  admits     ^  .  . 

•^  '  .  Opinion  of 

the  progress  of  human  knowledge  in  the  Abb6  de 
Church,  and  that  Christianity  is  "  an  im-  ^'■°^"*- 
mense  step  in  advance  "  from  the  religion  of  Moses, 
and  the  latter  from  that  of  the  Patriarchs.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  take  another  step,  following  out  this  law  of 
progress,  and  derive  the  Patriarchal  religion  from  the 

*  Cited  by  D'Alviella  in  his  Hibbert  Lectures^  i8gi. 


52  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief. 


beliefs  of  the  Semitic  peoples  on  a  much  lower  level, 
beliefs  the  character  of  which  is  known  from  the 
decipherment  of  their  inscriptions. 

Not  only  do  the  facts,  that  there  is  no  breach  of 
continuity  within  historic  time,  and  that  the  sciences 
Descent  to  ^^  Authropology,  Biology,  and  of  the 
savagery  in-  Earth  rcvcal  a  Divine  law  of  evolution, 
make  it  difficult  to  postulate  a  primi- 
tive monotheism  as  now  held  by  religious  culture. 
The  lapse  from  such  a  clear  conception  of  God  into 
a  universal  savagery,  by  all  peoples  without  excep- 
tion, is  inconceivable. 

The  argument  of  Whately,  derived  from  Nie- 
buhr,  that  there  is  no  historical  evidence  of  the  rise 
of  man  without  aid  from  the  savage  to  a  civilized 
state,  may  be  met,  as  Tylor  has  shown,  with  a  counter 
question.  Is  there  any  record  of  any  civilized  people 
falling  independently  into  a  savage  state  ?  Can  even 
the  hardships  of  a  Glacial  age  explain  so  great  a  de- 
scent? As  already  pointed  out,  the  summit  upon 
which  the  first  man  stood  has  been  so  levelled  by 
concessions  of  theologians,  that  hierographic  science 
can  ask  little  more. 

The  Bible  itself  presents  us  a  man  ignorant  of 
moral  distinctions  until  he  had  eaten,  contrary  to 
Scriptural  Command,  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,  hitherto  being  simply  a  non- 
moral  being.  He  is  depicted  as  naked 
like  the  animals  around  him,  not  until  the  transgres- 
sion making  for  himself  clothing  of  their  skins;  as 
capable  at  once  of  savage  outbreaks  ;  as  battling  with 


man  non 
moral. 


The  Beginning  of  Humaft  History.  53 


the  forces  of  nature  and  the  hostility  of  other  tribes ; 
as  slowly  arriving  at  the  discovery  of  iron  and  use  of 
barbaric  instruments  of  music.  It  is  difficult  to  see 
wherein  man  in  this  etiolated  scripture  picture  dif- 
fers from  the  savage  which  Anthropology  describes. 
What  kind  of  a  monotheism  could  it  have  been  if 
unable  to  distinguish  good  from  evil,  and  what  kind 
of  character  could  man  have  possessed  without  moral 
distinctions  ?  Were  it  possible  for  angels  to  remain 
ignorant  of  those  distinctions  and  yet  possess  char- 
acter, we  may  still  ask.  Does  sin  consist  in  this  dis- 
crimination by  man  of  good  from  evil  ?  That  history 
affords  examples  of  the  degeneration  of  peoples  is 
true,  but  it  is  to  be  observed  that  degeneration  sup- 
poses previous  attainment  of  culture.  '*  Progression," 
says  Tylor,  "  is  primary,  and  degradation  is  second- 
ary ;  culture  must  be  gained  before  it  can  be  lost." 
The  "  dangerous  classes  "  of  great  cities  have  not 
become  savages.  Proletarian  life,  unlike  savage  life, 
is  dependent  upon  civilized  conditions ;  the  savage 
is  dependent  upon  nature.  In  all  degradations  of 
peoples  from  higher  conditions,  caused  by  famine, 
war,  and  rigors  of  climate,  it  is  not  savagery  which  is 
reached,  but  a  state  in  which  elements  of  the  lost 
higher  condition  are  still  at  work,  and  where  some- 
thing of  the  higher  moral  and  intellectual  Hfe  survives 
in  the  new  state  of  being. 

The  Science  of  Language  enables  us  to  conclude 
that  no  savage  people  was  thrown  off  from  either 
the  Aryan  or  Semitic  stock  for  milleniums  of  time, 
and  this  fact  has  great  weight  against  the  contention 


54  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


that  from  a  high  culture  any  race  has  fallen  to  sav- 
agery.* 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  in  his  work,  The  Antiquity  of 
Matiy  describes  the  possible  achievements  of  man, 
had  he  started  with  high  intelligence.  Instead  of 
celts  and  polished  stones  we  should  find  works  sur- 
passing those  of  Phidias  and  Praxiteles,  lines  of 
buried  railways  or  electric  telegraphs,  telescopes,  and 
microscopes  far  surpassing  in  delicacy  of  construction 
anything  we  now  possess,  and  mysterious  inventions 
which  would  go  beyond,  and  prove  an  insoluble  enig- 
ma to,  the  most  advanced  intelligence  of  the  present 
day.  It  is  incredible  that  with  such  an  original  en- 
dowment the  capacities  of  man  should  have  shrunk 
to  the  proportions  of  savage  ignorance ;  that  godlike 
qualities  which  raised  him  above  the  angels  should  all 
have  foundered  in  the  shipwreck  of  his  beginning. 

When  Theology  has  summoned  Science  to  afford 
proof  of  the  descent  of  all  peoples  from  one  ances- 
opposing  ^°^'  ^^  ^^^  ^^^  been  successful.  Philology 
evidences  of  has  cast  much  light  upon  the  origin  and 
growth  of  Mythology  ;  its  torch  gives  a 
feeble  light  when  we  seek  by  its  guidance  to  find 
a  primitive  stock  and  a  primitive  ancestor.  It  can 
neither  affirm  nor  deny  the  unity  of  origin. 

Professor  W.  D.  Whitney  contends  that,  "  as  the 
linguist  is  compelled  to  allow  that  a  unique  race 
may  have  parted  into  branches  before  the  develop- 
ment of  abiding  germs  of  speech,  so  he  must  also 
admit  the  possibility  that  the  race  may  have  clung 

*  Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  ch.  ii. 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History.  5  5 


together  so  long,  or  the  development  of  its  speech 
have  been  so  rapid,  that,  even  prior  to  its  separation, 
a  common  dialect  had  been  elaborated,  the  traces  of 
which  no  lapse  of  time,  with  all  its  accompanying 
changes  could  entirely  obliterate."  *  And  thus 
changes  which  ''  can  bring  utter  apparent  diversity  out 
of  original  identity  "  can  *'  also  impress  similarity  upon 
original  diversity."  Professor  Sayce,  f  however,  ob- 
jects to  even  the  assumption  by  Whitney  of  a  parent 
speech,  regarding  it  as  being  as  hypothetical  as  the 
transition  of  one  form  of  speech  into  another. 

Linguistic  science  can  never  settle,  it  is  probable,  the 
question  of  the  monogenistic,  or  polygenistic  origin 
of  man.  While  certain  Hnguistic  groups  may  be 
pushed  back  to  a  fundamental  unity,  yet,  as  says 
Lenormant,  "there  will  remain  a  large  number  of 
irreducible  groups,  of  types  essentially  distinct,  which 
will  forever  defy  the  attempts  to  unify  them."  % 
Physical  ethnology,  as  well,  can  bear  no  positive  wit- 
ness to  the  unitary  origin  of  man,  and  upon  the  unity 
of  origin  must  the  traditional  view  of  the  Fall  rest. 

While,  however,  the  unity  of  origin  has  been  re- 
garded as  vital  to  the  dogma,  the  dogma  is  not 
dependent  upon  the  fact  of  unity.  Granting  the 
unity  of  origin,  that  unity  has  not  prevented  the 
splitting  up  of  humanity  into  plural  races.  Granting 
the  plurality  of  origin,  we  find  with  the  progress  of 
culture  that  the  conviction   becomes  inexpugnable 

*  Whitney,  Language  and  Study  of  Language,  p.  385. 
f  Sayce's  Introduction  to  Science  of  Language ^  vol.  i.,  81, 
%Histoire  de  L' Orient,  vol.  i.,  p.  328, 


56  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


of  a  spiritual  unity  of  mankind  which  is  in  the  future 
to  be  realized.  The  action  and  reaction  of  races 
upon  each  other  are  to  develop  the  same  moral 
ideals,  and  include  the  peoples  in  a  common  spirit- 
ual destiny.  To  be  brothers  in  the  common  possess- 
ion of  moral  ideals,  and  in  the  prospect  of  a  common 
salvation,  is  a  fact  of  more  moment  than  the  fact  of 
brotherhood  based  on  physical  descent.  It  is  a  unity 
not  to  be  sought  in  the  past,  but  realized  in  the 
future  Kingdom  of  God. 

Students  still  stand  confronted  with  three  or  four 
types  of  mankind  profoundly  dissimilar.  The  unity 
of  the  race  would  seem  to  be  that  of  psychic  consti- 
tution, and  the  same  psychological  laws  may  operate 
in  the  development  of  peoples  who  have  started 
from  various  and  remote  ancestral  pairs. 

If,  however,  Linguistic  Science  or  Physical  Eth- 
nology were  able  to  establish  a  common  descent,  we 
should  be  as  far  as  ever  from  the  establishment 
of  the  fact  of  the  primitive  perfection  of  man's  intel- 
ligence and  character.  As  all  roads  are  said  to  lead 
to  Rome,  the  lines  of  development  in  the  history  of 
Nature  and  of  Man  converge  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  has  been  continuous  progress  from  lower  to 
higher  conditions. 

Professor  Sayce  finds  in  the  development  of  Pre- 
Semitic  beliefs  much  that  is  adverse  to  the  theory  of 
History  and  o^ginal  pcrfectiou.*  The  Accado-Sume- 
Bibiicai  criti-  riau  tcxts  which  have  been  fairly  differen- 
*"*  tiated  from  those  betraying  later  Semitic 

influence  give  to  the  evil  in  the  world  no  moral  sig- 

*Note  III. 


The  Begmning  of  Human  History,  57 


nificance.  It  is  not  until  a  later  development  of 
Chaldean  Religion,  in  the  age  which  gave  birth  to 
the  poem  on  the  Deluge,  that  men  are  seen  to  suffer 
for  their  sins.  And  even  after  Semitic  influences  are 
felt,  the  consciousness  of  sin  is  rudimentary.  These 
magical  texts  take  us  back  to  the  earliest  religious 
literature,  and  contain  no  reference  to  man's  primi- 
tive perfection.  It  is  only  in  the  later  Semitic 
period  that  the  story  of  man's  origin  is  told.  Noth- 
ing has  come  down  to  the  Accadian  from  an  an- 
tiquity remote,  perhaps,  100,000,  or,  taking  the 
lowest  estimate,  25,000  years.  That  a  tradition  of 
original  perfection  should  have  survived  through 
ages  of  savagery  is  incredible,  even  if  it  is  granted  that 
man  was  originally  a  holier  being  than  he  is  to-day. 
History  has  no  word  to  say  in  all  that  ancient  time, 
and  we  must  pin  our  faith  upon  the  first  assurances 
of  man's  primitive  sinlessness  and  dignity,  given  us 
in  a  literature  which  is  in  comparison  with  man's 
prehistoric  existence,  a  literature  of  yesterday. 

We  are  thus  brought  to  the  Hebrew  literature  as 
the  authority  for  the  doctrine  of  a  primitive  lapse, 
and  to  the  conclusions  of  Criticism.  The  story  of 
man's  creation  and  that  of  the  deluge  should  not  be 
too  strictly  associated,  as  to  the  time  of  Hebrew 
their  origin,  nor  as  to  authorship.  But  literature, 
that  both  are  as  modern  as  the  inscriptions  upon  the 
cylinders  is  obvious.  The  original  forms  from  which 
the  scribes  of  Assurbanipal  made  their  copies  during 
his  reign  (b.C.  668-626)  are  supposed  by  Assyriolo- 
gists  to  date  back  to  the  seventeenth  century  B.C. 


58  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


But  Professor  Sayce  thinks  the  Chaldean  epic  of 
Creation  was  a  product  of  the  age  of  Assurbanipal.* 
Anyhow,  whether  we  hold  with  Lenormant  that 
both  Babylonian  and  Hebrew  borrowed  the  flood 
legend  from  a  primitive  tradition,  or,  with  Schra- 
der,  Kuenen,  and  Kosters,  that  the  Hebrews  before 
their  exile  derived  the  myth  from  the  Assyrians,  or 
with  Haupt,  and  others,  that  even  the  Jahvist  (who 
is  the  first  Hebrew  writer  who  refers  to  the  flood) 
borrowed  it  from  them  after  the  exile,  we  must  ad- 
mit that  the  stories  are  modern  contrasted  with  the 
antiquity  of  man  on  the  planet,  and  that  the  Hebrew 
narrator  has  interwoven  the  idea  of  original  perfec- 
tion with  archaic  fancies. 

Dr.  Herman  Schultz  remarks  that 

"  Any  one  who  takes  up  Genesis  as  an  honest-minded  historian,  ac- 
customed to  investigate  the  early  history  of  other  peo- 
Views  of         pies,  will  disdain  such  an  expedient  (as  that  of  turning 
Schultz  ,  .     ,  .        .  ,  ,  ,  .  X       ,      .,, 

and  others       mythical  narratives  into  actual  human  history)  and  will 

readily  acknowledge  that  here  he  has  to  deal  with 
reminiscences  of  primitive  Semitic  theology.  In  fact  he  will  admit 
that  much  later  still,  in  the  course  of  the  Mosaic  period,  mythical 
elements  from  the  groups  of  nations,  especially  from  Chaldea  and 
Phoenicia,  got  mixed  up  with  popular  Hebrew  legends."  f 

Ex-Pres.  A.  D.  White  commends  the  courage  of 
Oppert,  G.  Smith,  Sayce,  Jensen  and  others  for 
"  pointing  out  these  facts  and  connecting  them  with 
the  truth  that  these  Chaldean  and  Babylonian  myths 
were  far  earlier  than  those  of  the  Hebrews,  which  so 

*  Hibbert  Lectures,  p.  386, 

\  Old  Testament  Theology^  vol.  i.,  p.  113. 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History.  59 


strikingly  resemble  them,"  and  remarks  further  that 

"they  have  also  shown  us  how  natural  it  was  that  the  Jewish  ac- 
counts of  the  Creation  should  have  been  obtained  at  that  remote 
period  when  the  earliest  Hebrews  were  among  the  Chaldeans,  and 
how  the  great  Hebrew  poetic  accounts  of  Creation  were  drawn  either 
from  the  sacred  traditions  of  these  earlier  nations,  or  from  antecedent 
sources  common  to  various  ancient  nations."  * 

Professor  Driver  writes,  **  in  the  light  of  these  facts 
it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  the  Biblical 
narrative  is  drawn  from  the  same  sources  as  thes^ 
other  records."  And  he  concludes  that  materials 
which  other  peoples  associated  with  grotesque  poly- 
theism, were,  by  the  inspired  genius  of  Hebrew  his- 
torians, made  vehicles  of  profound  religious  truth. f 

To  these  statements  may  be  added  the  opinion  of 
Dr.  Ryle,  who  admits  that  the  Hebrew  Cosmogony 
is  from  the  same  source  as  the  Assyro-Babylonian 
Cosmogonies.  At  the  Church  Congress  in  1892,  it 
was  declared  by  Archdeacon  Wilson 

"  that  modern  criticism  is  practically  unanimous  in  saying  that  a  non- 
historical  element  no  longer  separable  has  mixed  with  the  narrative, 
and  that  in  this  respect  the  sacred  books  of  Christianity  are  like  those 
of  Mosaism,  of  Buddhism,  or  Islam,  or  other  religions,  and  that  mod- 
ern criticism  is  practically  unanimous  in  saying  that  an  atmosphere  of 
the  miraculous  in  a  certain  stage  of  the  human  mind  is  an  inseparable 
accompaniment  of  the  profound  reverence,  with  which  a  great 
Teacher  and  Prophet  and  Saint  is  regarded  by  his  followers,  and  the 
necessary  literary  form  in  which  such  reverence  would  express  itself. 
It  is  impossible,  therefore,  that  such  an  atmosphere  should  not  have 
gathered  round  the  memory  of  Christ."  % 

*  Pop.  Science  Monthly,  Feb.,  1894. 
t  Note  III. 

X  Quoted  by  Max  MUller  in  the  preface  to  Anthropological  Religion^ 
p.  16. 


6o  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


Dr.  Wilson  presumably  accepts  the  miracles  of  the 
Resurrection  and  those  recorded  as  wrought  by  our 
Lord,  but  is  not  adverse  to  admitting  that  in  the 
Gospels  some  non-historical  elements  have  crept 
into  the  narrative. 

Dr.  H.  Schultz  quotes  Riehm  as  saying,  the  myth 
*'  is  born  again  by  the  creative  power  of  the  living, 
self-revealing  God,"  and  himself  writes: 

•'  In  Israel  the  Spirit  which  sustained  and  developed  Israel's  religion, 
could  appropriate  such  myths  as  raw  material  and  saturate  them  with 
its  true  and  enduring  beliefs  concerning  God,  the  world,  and  man. 
.  .  .  In  fact,  legend  must  be  regarded  as  fitted,  in  a  higher  degree 
than  history,  to  be  the  medium  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  in  history 
every  figure  expresses  only  in  an  approximate  and  imperfect  fashion, 
what  the  Spirit  at  work  in  that  particular  people  desires.  In  the 
legend,  however,  it  is  this  very  Spirit  which  moulds  these  figures  and 
gives  them  flesh  and  blood.  .  .  .  Hence  the  matchless  value  of 
patriarchal  legend  for  purposes  of  edification."  * 

Francois  Lenormant  declines  to  accept  as  literal 
history  the  account  of  the  serpent,  and  claims  the 
right,  as  an  orthodox  thinker,  to  consider  it  as  a 
legend  borrowed  from  other  peoples,  designed  to 
make  intelligible  a  fact  of  the  moral  order,  an  effort 
to  solve  the  moral  problem  which  presents  itself  to 
every  human  consciousness.  Thus  the  very  general 
consensus  of  criticism  accepts  the  Hebrew  narrative 
concerning  the  primitive  perfection  and  the  Deluge, 
as  derived  from  Chaldean  sources,  or  from  an  older 
tradition  common  to  both.f     But  however  ancient 

*  Old  Testament  Theology,  vol.  i.,  pp.  22,  24. 
t  Note  IV. 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History,  6i 


that  tradition,  it  is  comparatively  modern,  when  we 
reflect  upon  the  vast  antiquity  of  man. 

The  conclusion  drawn  by  Lotze,  in  the  light  of 
the  sciences  of  Philology,  Physical  Ethnology,  Pre- 
historical  Archaeolog^y,  and  correlated  sci-  e,.  . 

o-'  '  statement  of 

ences,  seems  inevitable,  when  still  further  Herman 
sustained  by  BibHcal  Criticism.      **  That  ^°''^' 

Historical  life  was  preceded  by  a  primitive  state  of 
moral  holiness  and  profound  wisdom,  and  that  all 
succeeding  ages  were  taken  up  with  the  decay  of 
this  glory  and  a  struggle  against  the  decay ;  such  a 
wholly  perverted  view  will  hardly  find  advocates  in 
the  present  day."  *  And  the  watering  down  of  the 
conception,  of  the  primitive  purity,  by  even  conserva- 
tive thinkers,  to  almost  an  identity  with  the  con- 
ception of  the  anthropologist,  attests  the  force  of 
scientific  evidence  and  argument. 

Meanwhile  the  old  philosophy  of  origins  not  only 
falters,  but  the  philosophy  of  character  also  falters. 
That  conflict  is  necessary  to  the  develop-  no  hostility 
ment  of  character,  that  progress  through  between  His- 
struggle  is  necessary  to  the  achievement  doctrine  of 
of  holiness,  are  truths  written  large  in  the  Redemption, 
rubric  of  Christian  faith,  and  if  this  promise  is  valid, 
a  rigorous  logic  compels  us  to  admit  that  had  man 
remained  in  a  Paradise  without  learning  the  differ- 
ence between  good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong,  moral 
conflict  would  not  have  begun,  there  would  have 
been  no  progress,  and  history  would  have  had  noth- 
ing to  record. 

*  Lotze,  Microcosmus,  vol.  ii.,  p.  179. 


62  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


But  the  charge  against  the  science  of  religious 
development  is  unrelentingly  reiterated,  that  it 
makes  no  place  for  the  fact  of  Sin  and  its  correlative 
fact,  Redemption. 

Sin,  remorse,  prayer,  forgiveness  are  declared  to 
have  no  meaning  in  an  evolutionary  theory  of  the 
world.  The  facts  of  experience  are  made  to  stand 
or  fall  with  the  doctrine  of  original  perfection  and 
lapse.  But  a  sense  of  sin  and  the  feeling  of  remorse 
do  not  rest  upon  any  remote  fact  of  history,  or  upon 
any  theory  of  derivative  psychology.  No  theory  of 
the  origin  of  Sin  can  found  the  idea  of  responsi- 
bility elsewhere  than  in  the  present  individual  con- 
sciousness, or  do  more  than  affirm  that  an  event 
occurred  before,  which  is  taking  place  every  hour  now 
in  the  forum  of  conscience.  Remorse  for  sin  springs 
up  as  keen  now  in  the  breast  of  him  who,  believ- 
ing in  the  Divine  evolution  of  the  world,  yet  by 
some  sinful  thought  or  act,  places  himself  out  of 
harmony  with  this  physical  and  moral  environment, 
as  in  the  breast  of  him  who  is  taught  to  look  back  to 
a  perfect  ancestor  who  has  founded  the  experience  of 
Sin.  Theology  has  had  to  contend  with  the  tendency 
to  lay  the  fault  upon  that  ancestor,  and  to  escape  from 
personal  obligation  to  lead  a  holy  life.  One  may  be 
pardoned  for  doubting  that  the  Augustinian  view 
has  been  an  unmixed  blessing  to  Theology. 

Sin  is  not  an  ancestral,  but  a  personal  affair.     It 
would  be   folly   to  affirm  that  one  cannot  be  con 
scious  of  drowning,  or  grateful  for  rescue,  until  one 
shall  be  told  how  he  fell  into  the  water,  or  how  his 


The  Beginning  of  Huma7i  History,  63 


ancestor  in  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror  lost 
his  life  in  the  surf.  De  Pressens^,  adhering  to  the 
old  view,  affirms,  that  the  sufferings,  as  well  as  aspira- 
tions, of  humanity  show  that  in  a  mysterious /^5/,  it 
has  become  separate  from  God  (s'est  derobee  k  Dieu) 
and  that  the  word  of  the  religious  enigma  is  not 
Evolution,  but  Redemption.  But  it  is  not  a  mysteri- 
ous past,  it  is  a  mysterious  present  which  constitutes 
the  enigma  of  Sin.  It  is  the  present  free  act  of  man, 
who  does  what  he  ought  not  to  do,  and  leaves  un- 
done what  he  ought  to  do,  which  gives  rise  to  the 
sense  of  guilt.  It  would  be  disastrous  to  persuade 
humanity,  that  the  moral  categories  have  their  basis 
only  in  a  psychic  experience  of  a  remote  founder 
of  the  race,  and  not  in  personal  and  contemporary 
conscience.  It  is  not  necessary  to  travel  back 
through  the  ages  to  find  the  categorical  imperative 
of  conscience. 

In  man's  conscience  has  been  evolved,  with  the 
lapse  of  every  century,  higher  moral  standards.  The 
ideal  of  what  ought  to  be,  and  is  not  that  gj^  ^  ^^.^^^_ 
which  is,  is  ever  beyond  his  achievement,  tion  of  the 
He  is  ever  arriving  at  the  perfect  ideal,  is 
always  more  than  he  thinks  he  is,  and  strives  to 
realize  a  higher  self.  If  it  is  a  sense  of  imperfect 
development,  it  is  an  imperfection  for  which  he  holds 
himself  culpable.  Sin  is  a  dread  reality  to  the  con- 
sciousness not  because  the  race  started  right  and 
lapsed  into  savagery,  but  because  God  is  still  im- 
manent in  the  conscience  of  the  sons  of  Adam,  as 
truly  as  in  that  of  Adam  himself,  and  thus  urging 


64  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


them  by  his  Spirit  onward  towards  higher  ideals. 
He  who  shuts  his  eyes  to  that  Ideal  and  refuses  to 
follow  the  star,  at  once  finds  himself  at  war  w^th 
himself  and  with  his  Maker. 

The  scientific  and  the  theological  view,  of  the 
function  of  conscience,  are  not  in  conflict.  How  can 
it  be  shown  that  a  scientist  who  earn- 
of^cJ^8"c'ence.  ^^tly  dcsires  to  live  in  harmony  with  all 
cosmical  and  spiritual  laws,  discerning  in 
them  the  method  of  a  Goodness  realizing  itself,  is 
not  seeking  after  righteousness  as  truly  as  the  man 
who  believes  that  God  is  outside  the  world,  and 
deals  with  men  not  through  and  within  a  develop- 
ing order  and  in  accord  with  the  psychic  laws  of 
human  nature,  but  in  a  wholly  interpositional  way. 

The  static  conception  of  the  world  and  Religion 
seems  to  many  devout  minds  vastly  inferior,  in 
elevating  power,  to  the  dynamic  conception. 

The  breach  of  law  is,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
unscientific  religionist,  a  violation  of  a  command  ; 
from  that  of  the  Christian  man  of  science  a  violation 
of  the  Divine  physical  and  spiritual  order  of  the 
world.  The  commands  of  God  and  their  sanctions 
are  nowhere  to  be  found,  save  in  the  constitution  of 
the  human  soul  and  of  the  world.  Bibles  with  their 
doctrines  of  rewards  and  retribution  are  the  work  of 
men  inspired  to  seek  the  higher  Ideal,  by  the 
Immanent  Spirit  who  troubles  the  soul  with  thoughts 
that  take  hold  on  the  Divine  and  Eternal.  The 
sense  of  sin  is  psychically  developed  in  the  search 
for  God,  and  through  the  arrival  of  higher  impera- 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History.  65 


tive  ideals.  It  implies  an  absence  of  adjustment 
with  the  spiritual  environment,  as  physical  pain  is  a 
proclamation  of  mal-adjustment  with  natural  laws. 

The  sense  of  sin  urges  man  to  seek  harmony  with 
God  and  his  environment,  as  the  the  throb  of  pain 
urges  the  sufferer  to  restore  correspondence  of  his 
physical  life  with  nature  and  her  laws. 

But  as  Professor  Fiske  says : 

"While  the  sense  of  pain  is  common  to  those  creatures  whose  in- 
centives to  action  are  purely  selfish,  the  sense  of  sin  can  be  possessed 
only  by  those  creatures  whose  intelligence  is  sufficiently 
complex  to  enable  them  to  recognize  the  relationship  in  •'°  "  o^Sin 
which  they  stand  to  the  Omnipresent  Power  and  whose 
highest  incentives  are  quite  impersonal.     To  feel  the  sting  of  self-re- 
proach because  of  wrong-doing  without  any  selfish  reference  to  the 
misery  which  the  wrong-doing  must  inevitably  entail,  is  the  highest 
prerogative  of  that  creature  whose  future  career  of  evolution,  as  we 
have  seen,  must  mainly  consist  in  spiritual  improvement  : — and  in  it 
we  may  recognize  the  sure  token  of  the  glorious  fulness  of  life  to 
which  humanity  must  eventually  attain."  * 

It  is,  then,  this  advancing  conception  of  the  nature 
of  Goodness  and  of  the  Divine  Being,  which  consti- 
tutes the  pain  and  the  progress  in  hope,  of  rehgious 
man  ;  and  in  God's  revelation  of  himself  in  the  Christ, 
the  perfect  ideal  is  realized  in  His  sinless  purity  and 
perfect  self-adjustment  to  the  rational,  physical,  and 
spiritual  order.  In  man's  union  with  Christ,  he  finds 
the  redeeming  power  which  enables  him  to  rise 
to  higher  and  higher  perfection.f 

In  conclusion,  the  dynamic  explanation  of  the  feel- 
ing of  sin  as  a  deepening  consciousness  of  the  Divine 
Ideal,  and  of  man's  failure  to  reach  it,  finds  impas- 
*  Cosmic  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  456.  t  Note  V. 

5 


66  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief. 


sioned  expression  in  the  letters  of  St.  Paul.  *'  For- 
getting the  things  which  are  behind  and  looking  to 
those  which  are  before,  I  press  forward  for  the  prize 
of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

In  reply  to  the  objection  that  the  desire  for  adjust- 
ment with  the  physical  and  moral  order  is  scientific, 
not  religious,  is  frigid  philosophy,  not  devotion,  it 
may  be  said  that  charity  should  incline  us  to  respect 
the  rapture  which  a  Copernicus,  or  a  Newton,  or  a 
Wordsworth  experiences  in  the  contemplation  of 
Nature.  The  self-revelation  of  God  is  to  be  found 
in  the  world-order,  and  in  the  nature  of  man.  Resi- 
dent in  the  order  of  the  universe,  we  may,  with 
Kepler,  think  his  thoughts  after  Him.  The  Divine 
Will  is  but  the  movement  of  Divine  Reason.  The 
holiness  of  God  is  apprehended  not  as  beyond  world- 
relations,  but  in  these  relations,  and  to  violate  their 
order,  is  to  sin  against  Infinite  Goodness.  Man  finds 
everywhere  manifest  in  the  universe,  rationality,  be- 
cause he  himself  is  a  rational  being  sharing  the 
Reason  of  God.  To  act  out  of  harmony  with  the 
cosmical  order,  is  to  act  contrary  to  the  Divine 
Reason  within  man,  to  become  a  lawless  spirit,  to 
hurl  himself  out  of  the  Divine  environment,  in  a 
word,  to  sin  against  Holiness. 

The  conception  of  God,  as  of  one  unwilling  to 
have  his  creatures  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil,  and  punishing  man  with  exile,  for  yielding 
to  a  legitimate  use  of  the  faculties  bestowed  upon 
him,  is  a  less  worthy  conception  than  that  of  a  God 
who  walks  not  in  a  garden,  but  is  the  Ground  of  all 


TJie  Beginning  of  Human  History,  6^ 


Being,  whose  thoughts  are  uttered  in  the  rhythmic 
motions  of  planets,  whose  goodness  is  revealed  in 
sequences  of  events,  whose  redeeming  love  inspires 
men  to  live  in  harmony  with  the  order,  which  is  the 
expression  and  authority  of  Reason.  Symbolism 
must  indeed  aid  the  apprehension  of  Reality.  The 
conceptions  of  childhood  are  not  at  war  with  those 
of  manhood  ;  the  wider  knowledge  of  the  world 
broadens  and  exalts  the  primitive  conceptions.  The 
anthropomorphism  of  primitive  theologies  is  ex- 
changed for  the  sublime  consciousness  of  the  Divine 
Personality,  gained  through  the  conception  of  Reason 
and  Will  as  immanent  in  his  world. 

NOTE    I. 

"  We  have  spoken  hitherto  of  the  world  as  a  manifes- 
tation of  Divine  Force,  and  treated  the  physical  forces 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  subject  of  which  they  were 
forces.  But  Force,  to  be  real,  requires  at  least  two  factors 
and  cannot  act  upon  nothing,  any  more  than  it  can  be 
the  force  of  nothing.  We  must  consider,  then,  the 
objects  also  upon  which  the  Divine  Force  acts. 

"  It  must  be  a  manifestation  to  (something  or)  some- 
body, it  must  act  upon  (something  or)  somebody.  Upon 
whom  ?  Upon  us,  surely,  for  it  is  to  us  that  the  world 
appears.  .  .  .  When  therefore  we  call  the  universe 
a  manifestation  of  divine  Force,  we  are  not  speaking 
with  perfect  precision,  but  leaving  out  the  other  half  of 
the  Stress,  viz.,  the  Reaction  of  the  Ego  upon  that  Force. 
The  Cosmos  of  our  experience  is  a  stress  or  inter-action 
between  God  and  ourselves."  * 

*  Riddles  of  the  Sphinx,  F.  C.  S.  Schiller,  Ph.D.,  p.  279. 


68  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


On  page  293  Mr.  Schiller  remarks  :  "  If  we  think  out 
the  relation  which  on  our  theory  must  exist  between  the 
Deity  and  the  Egos,  we  shall  perceive  that  matter  is  an 
admirably  calculated  machinery  for  regulating,  limiting, 
and  restraining  the  consciousness  which  it  encases.  .  .  . 
Accordingly  we  find  that  though  Matter,  being  nothing 
in  itself,  cannot  be  the  principle  of  Evil,  and  is  not  in 
itself  Evil,  it  is  yet  characteristic  of  an  essentially  im- 
perfect order  of  things  :  it  is,  as  it  were,  the  outward 
indication  and  visible  reflection  of  Evil.  For  Evil  is,  like 
all  things  ultimately  psychical,  and  what  is  evil  about 
Matter  is  the  condition  of  the  spirits,  which  require  the 
restraint  of  Matter.  If,  therefore,  as  Plato  says,  the 
body  is  the  grave  of  the  soul,  and  Matter  is  the  prison 
of  the  Spirit,  it  must  yet  be  admitted  that  it  is  not  the 
existence  of  prisons  which  is  to  be  deplored,  but  of  those 
whom  it  is  necessary  to  imprison." 

NOTE    II. 

M.  Charles  Secretan,  of  the  University  of  Lausanne, 
has  treated  profoundly  the  Fall  of  man,  as  a  precosmic 
result  of  the  operation  of  the  principle  of  evil.  The 
redemption  or  restoration  includes  all  nature.  In  his 
admirable  work,  La  Philosophie  de  la  Libert^^  he  regards 
the  "  fall "  as  anterior  to  the  constitution  of  nature,  and 
the  origin  of  this  nature  is  to  be  sought  in  the  plan  of 
the  restoration.  I  venture  to  quote  from  his  pages  : 
"  Experience  establishes  a  progression  in  creations  ante- 
rior to  our  own.  The  internal  relations  which  unite 
them  force  us  to  discern  preparatory  periods." 

"  L'opposition  qui  regne  entre  tout  ce  qui  pouvait 
exister  dans  ces  dpoques  et  I'id^al  de  la  creation,  dont 
le  seul  motif  intelligible  de  la  part  du  Cr^ateur  nous  fait 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History.  69 


comprendre  le  caractere,  demontre  que  le  principe  du 
mal  moral  etait  actif  dans  le  monde  a  toutes  les  epoques 
dont  nous  pouvons  obtenir  une  connaisance  experimen- 
tale  quelconque.  Nous  sommes  done  manifestement 
contraints  d'avouer  que  ces  epoques  appartiennent  au 
proces  de  la  restauration,  et  que  la  chute  les  a  precedees. 
La  verite  de  cette  conclusion  me  semble  ressortir  du 
seul  fait  d'une  succession  progressive.  Pourquoi  I'ideal 
n'aurait-il  pas  ete  realise  du  premier  coup,  s'il  n'elit  pas 
rencontre  d'obstacles  ?  L'humanite,  qui  voit  dans  le 
progres  la  supreme  loi  de  Tunivers,  se  plait  a  constater 
le  progres  anterieurement  a  sa  propre  existence.  .  .  . 
Pour  concilier  ces  commencements  chetifs  que  I'experi- 
ence  lui  revele,  avec  la  perfection  de  la  creation  divine 
dont  il  est  certain  a  priori^  il  faut  qu'il  admette  une  alte- 
ration des  rapports  primitifs  et  I'introduction  accidentelle 
d'un  principe  de  resistance  qui  ne  puisse  etre  surmonte 
que  graduellement.  Ainsi  puisque  nous  voyons  la  loi 
d'evolution  progressive  regner  dans  le  monde  avant 
I'apparition  de  l'humanite  dans  sa  forme  sensible,  nous 
sommes  oblige  de  placer  la  chute  avant  cette  apparition. 
"  En  resume,  I'histoire  de  la  nature  dans  les  phases 
qu'elle  a  parcourues  anterieurement  a  la  race  humaine, 
ne  s'explique  pas  sans  I'intervention  des  idees  de  mal  et 
de  progres.  Nous  n'y  trouvons  pas  sans  doute  des  mani- 
festations directes  du  mal  moral,  mais  nous  y  trouvons 
des  faits  qui  supposent  I'influence  du  principe  du  mal. 
Et  comme  le  mal  ne  saurait  avoir  d'autre  origine  que  la 
volonte  des  etres  libres,  nous  sommes  contraints  de  placer 
avant  toutes  les  revolutions  materielles  dont  les  sciences 
experimentales  nous  permettent  de  remonter  le  cours, 
une  determination  de  la  creature  libre.  La  chute  pre- 
cede les  revolutions  naturelles  et  les  explique.    Mais  elle 


70  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


ne  les  explique  pas  seule  :  avant  la  venue  de  rhomme 
naturel,  de  la  race  humaine,  la  nature  n'etait  pas  livree 
purement  et  simplement  aux  consequences  de  la  chute. 
Sa  marche  est  un  progres,  dont  I'apparition  de  I'human- 
it6  forme  en  quelque  sens  le  terme.  Avant  Thomme,  la 
nature  a  deja  subi  Tinfluence  du  principe  restaura- 
teur.    .     .     . 

"  La  chute  etla  restauration  dont  les  periodes  de  I'hist- 
oire  du  monde  ant^rieures  a  nous  conservent  les  marques, 
d^terminent  la  condition  de  notre  propre  existence  ;  et 
comme,  d'apres  le  principe  general  que  nous  avons  adopte 
surl'autorite  de  la  conscience  morale  et  de  I'evidence  in- 
tellectuelle,  il  appartient  ^  I'etre  libre  de  determiner  sa 
condition  lui-meme,  il  est  clair  que  cette  chute  est  notre 
chute,  cette  restauration,  notre  restauration.     .     .     . 

"  Quelques  fideles  se  demandent  si  notre  maniere  de 
comprendre  la  chute  est  d'accord  avec  I'Ecriture.  Je 
repondrai  que  mon  intention  ne  saurait  etre  ni  d'ex- 
pliquer  les  recits  de  la  Genese  ni  d'en  fixer  le  sens,  mais 
que  je  ne  les  contredis  pas  du  tout.  En  effet  la  Genese 
ne  pretend  pas  indiquer  I'origine  du  mal.  Lorsqu' 
Adam  est  tent6  dans  le  Jardin,  le  principe  du  mal  existe 
d^ja  dans  le  monde  sous  une  forme  personelle  ;  or  la 
question  que  je  me  suis  efforce  de  r^soudre  est  celle  de, 
I'introduction  du  mal  dans  le  monde,  au  sens  absolu. 

"  Je  conclus  done  :  La  Chute,  acte  d'un  sujet  moral 
substantiellement  identique  ^  I'humanit^,  est  ant^rieure- 
ment  k  la  nature  actuelle. 

"  La  Nature  actuelle  est  un  produit  de  la  restaura- 
tion."— (Lefon  VIIL,  La  Philosophic  de  la  LiberU.) 

NOTE    III. 

"  The  Semitic  belief,  in  fact,  stands  out  in  striking 
contrast  to  beliefs  which  betrayed  no  consciousness  of 


The  Beginning  of  Htuna^i  History,  yi 


human  sin,  and  the  necessity  of  finding  in  this  an  ex- 
planation of  malevolent  action  on  the  part  of  the  gods 
above." — Hibbert  Lectures^  p.  314.  Professor  A.  H. 
Sayce. 

"  It  is  only  necessary  to  read  the  psalm  (just  quoted) 
to  see  in  it  distinct  traces  of  contact  on  the  part  of  the 
Accadians  with  Semitic  thought.  The  god  cannot  be 
addressed  alone  ;  the  goddess  necessarily  stands  at  his 
side.  The  introspection,  moreover,  which  the  psalm  re- 
veals is  hardly  reconcilable  with  the  religious  concep- 
tions presupposed  by  the  magical  texts  and  the  earlier 
hymns.  The  consciousness  of  sin  is  a  new  feature  in 
Chaldean  Religion,  and  belongs  to  the  age  that  saw  the 
rise  of  poems  like  that  on  the  Deluge,  which  ascribed 
the  sufferings  of  mankind  to  their  wrong-doing.  Hith- 
erto the  evil  that  existed  in  the  world  had  not  been 
given  a  moral  significance.  It  was  due  to  the  action  of 
malevolent  spirits  or  the  decrees  of  inexorable  fate, 
rather  than  to  the  wickedness  of  man,  and  it  was  re- 
moved by  spells  and  ceremonies  which  occasioned  the 
interference  of  the  god  of  wisdom  and  his  son  Mero- 
dach." — Hibbert  Lectures^  p.  352.     A.  H.  Sayce. 

Among  the  ancient  Accadians,  then,  there  was  no 
consciousness  of  sin  or  of  a  lapse.  It  was  not  until  the 
arrival  of  the  Semites  from  Arabia,  and  their  political 
fusion  with  the  Accadians,  that  the  Deluge  poem,  and 
the  psalms  which  betray  a  consciousness  of  sin,  were 
composed. 

NOTE  IV. 

De  la  Saussaye,  Manual  of  the  Science  of  Religion^  p. 
497,  thinks  the  Flood  story  is  derived  by  the  Hebrews  at 
a  late  period  ;  that  it  could  not  have  been  borrowed  so 


72  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


early  as  the  time  of  Abraham,  nor  so  late  as  the  time  of 
the  Exile,  but  probably  during  the  time  of  the  Kings. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Gore  in  Lux  Mimdt,  asks  the  ques- 
tion :  "  Are  not  its  earlier  narratives  before  the  call  of 
Abraham  of  the  nature  of  myth,  in  which  we  cannot  dis- 
tinguish the  historical  germ  though  we  do  not  deny  that 
it  exists  ?  "  And  he  reminds  us  that  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria and,  later,  Anselm,  treat  the  seven  days  creation 
as  an  allegory,  and  even  Athanasius  speaks  of  Paradise 
as  a  "  figure."  The  story  of  an  original  perfection 
must  find  its  source  not  in  actual  history,  but  in  the 
philosophy  of  religious  men  before  or  after  the  Exile. 

NOTE  V. 

In  his  interpretation  of  Romans,  v.,  12-21,  Weizsacker 
finds  no  evidence  that  St.  Paul  regarded  the  first  man, 
the  founder  of  the  race,  as  a  "  pneumatical,"  or  "  spirit- 
ual "  man.  "  It  is  remarkable  that  he  does  not  there  say 
that  Sin  emanated,  and  was  transmitted  to  all  his  descend- 
ants, from  Adam's  fall.  That  was  of  course  the  means 
by  which  Sin  entered  the  world,  but  yet  it  is  not  the  sin 
that  is  said  to  have  extended  to  all  men  ;  it  is  the  death 
which  accompanied  Sin.  And  this  transmission  of  death 
is  not  the  effect  of  Adam's  transgression  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  conditioned  by  the  fact  that  all  have  themselves 
sinned.  If  Paul  has  been  influenced  here  by  the  Jewish 
view  that  Adam's  descendants  were  already  present  in 
him,  yet  he  has  not  concluded  from  it  that  they  sinned 
with  him." 

Weizsacker  develops  his  argument  to  the  conclusion, 
that  in  view  of  the  passage,  I.  Corinthians,  xv.,  45,  46, 
the  question  whether  St.  Paul  supposes  "  the  nature  of 
the  first  man  to  have  been  pneumatic  before  his  trans- 


The  Beginning  of  Human  History. 


73 


gression  "  "  is  undoubtedly  to  be  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive." The  argument  from  page  148  to  page  153,  vol.  i. 
deserves  the  attention  of  students  of  the  Pauline  theology. 
(English  translation,  Apostolic  Age  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Carl  von  Weizsacker  ) 

If  the  conclusions  of  Weissman  shall  (as  seems  doubt- 
ful) be  accepted  by  biologists,  that  the  doctrine  of 
heredity  is  to  be  modified,  it  is  hardly  probable  that 
they  who  believe  in  a  primal  lapse,  will  yield  their 
ground. 

I  venture  to  refer  again  to  Lux  Mundi^  page  373,  where 
Mr.  Gore  has  the  following  note,  "  In  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  Adam  was  found  perfect  or  imperfect, 
riXeioi  rf  areXrji,  Clement  replies,  '  They  shall  learn 
from  us  that  he  was  not  perfect  (/.  e.,  complete  in  de- 
velopment xeXsw^)  in  respect  of  his  creation,  but  in  a 
fit  condition  to  receive  virtue.* "  (Clem.  Alex.,  Strom^ 
vi.,  12,  96  ;  Cp.  Iren.  c.  haer  iv.,  3,  8.) 


CHAPTER  IV, 


PSYCHOLOGICAL   GENESIS   OF   RELIGION. 


THE  secret  of  Religion  lies  in  its  primitive  im- 
plicit, and  in  its  later  philosophical,  conceptions. 
That  which  has  become  explicated  in  advanced 
culture  of  rehgious  man,  is  latent  in  the  conscious- 
„  ,.  .  ness  of  primitive  man.     The  naive  thought 

Religion  a  ^^  t> 

progressive  and  fccllng  of  the  latter,  directed  towards 
capacity.  ^|^^  higher  power,  reveal  the  religious 
capacity  which  reaches  its  nobler  development  in  the 
later  stages  of  culture.  From  the  first  step  to  the 
last,  the  march  is  one,  the  goal  is  one.  From  the 
thought  and  emotion  of  the  man  who  chants  his 
hymn  to  Varuna  or  Agni,  to  the  worship  of  him 
who,  at  the  present  day,  bends  in  the  aisles  of 
the  temples  of  Christendom,  the  progress  is  genetic 
and  divine. 

"  The  Objective  Divine  Reason,"  says  Professor  Pfleiderer,  "  which 
forms  the  ruling  law  of  the  world,  becomes  in  man  the  pathos  of  the 
heart,  and  a  living  power,  and  on  the  other  side,  man's  heart,  defiant 
and  timid  as  it  is  by  nature,  is  united  with  the  reason  of  the  Divine 
world-order,  and  thereby  made  truly  reasonable  in  all  its  feeling,  and 
willing."* 

*  Philos.  of  Relig.^  vol.  iii.,  p.  30. 
74 


Psychological  Ge7iesis  of  Religion,  75 


Explain  how  we  may  man's  advent  upon  the  stage 
of  the  world,  his  language,  as  Bunsen  affirmed,  differ- 
entiates him  from  the  animals.     His  Ian-     . 

Language, 
guage    was    the     product     of     his    thought.  Morality,  and 

for  thought  must  be  forever  lame  with-  ^vefope/fn 
out  language.  Language,  Morality,  and  external 
Religion  are  to  be  forged  in  efforts  of  ad- 
justment ;  the  external  conditions  in  which  man  finds 
himself  are  to  act  as  excitants  to  liberate  the  electric 
spark  of  Reason  ;  and  Language,  Morals,  and  Religion 
find  expression.  That  these  are  Divine  capacities 
within  man,  roused  to  activity  by  the  impressions 
made  upon  his  senses  by  the  outer  world,  to  enter 
henceforward  upon  a  career  of  plastic  energy,  a  true 
psychology  will  not  permit  us  to  question.  His 
finite  reason  is  a  Divine  spark  ;  but  a  spark  to  be 
kindled  and  to  grow  in  contact  with  the  outlying 
physical  world.  His  subjective  powers  can  find  no 
development  except  amidst  objective  relations.  Re- 
ligion, therefore,  as  the  product  of  his  thought  and 
feeling,  must  find  its  liberation  in  the  experience  of 
life  and  history,  and  its  development  must  be  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  human  progress. 

To  say  that  Religion  has  its  genesis  in  human 
thought  and  emotion,  is  not  to  deny  its  Divine  orig- 
in ;  it  is  rather  to  affirm  that  no  revelation 
from  God  is  possible  save  to  a  religious  Religion  a 
capacity,  and  that  capacity  is  itself  a '^^^^"^  ^^^^^^- 
revelation.  Henceforth  that  capacity,  sub- 
ject to  impacts  of  the  external  world,  is  adequate  to 
the  production  of  all  religious  phenomena  observed 


"j^  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


V 


by  the  Science  of  Religion,  for  it  is  the  capacity  of 
a  rational  being,  constantly  feeling  the  authority  and 
inspiration  of  Divine  Reason. 

In  this  derivation  of  human  will  from  the  Divine 

Will,  and  the  consciousness  of  a  dependent  relation, 

,  we  find  the  common  root  of  Religion  and 

Common  root  «-* 

of  Religion  Morality.  Because  in  later  stages  of  so- 
and  Morality,  ^jg^y  Religion  and  Morality  have  been 
sundered,  that  they  have  this  common  root  has  been 
denied.  But  the  fact  is  established,  that  social  cus- 
toms and  legal  ordinances  sprang  directly  from  re- 
ligious beliefs  and  usages.  The  primordial  unit  of 
society — as  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  others  have  shown 
— was  not  the  individual,  but  the  family,  and  from 
the  aboriginal  family  group,  with  its  nascently  ethi- 
cal relationships,  the  Tribal,  Civic,  and  National 
forms  of  society  have  proceeded.*^  The  family  be- 
comes a  moral  fellowship,  and  through  religious 
beliefs  and  practices,  the  sympathies  which  make 
the  family  enduring,  and  the  affections,  however 
rudimentary,  which  bind  husband  and  wife,  mother 
and  children  together,  become  consecrated  as  piety. 
Thus,  social  arrangements  and  the  moral  ideas  essen- 
tial to  their  stability,  sprang  from  religious  motives. f 
The  consciousness  of  a  higher  Power  and  the 
connection  of  the  human  with  the  Divine  Will, 
finds,  as  Professor  Pfleiderer  expresses  it, 

*'  immediate  manifestation  in  Religion  as  the  union  of  God  and  man, 
while  in  Morality  it  appears  mediately  as  the  social  bond  of  the  in- 
dividual and  society.     So  far  it  may  be  said  that  Religion  contains  the 

*  Note  I.  t  Note  II. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  77 


ideal  ground  of  Morality,  and  Morality  the  real  manifestation  of  Re- 
ligion. From  this  it  follows  that  each  of  them  has  its  truth  only  in 
union  with  the  other  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  either  must  be- 
come stunted  and  falsified  when  torn  away  from  the  other."  * 

Man,  as  we  know  him,  existed  not  in  a  gregarious 
state,  but  in  a  state  of  sociality,  the  aboriginal  family. 
Mr.  John  Fiske,  in  his  theory  of  the  pro- 

,  .  r    .     r  ...  ^ ,         The  Family, 

longation  of  nifancy  as  givmg  rise  to  the  the  unit  of 
family  affections  has  made  a  brilliant  con-     ancient  so- 

">  ^  ciety- 

tribution  to  the  doctrine  of  social  evolu- 
tion. But  it  is  still  impossible  to  conceive  man  as 
he  now  is,  as  existing  prior  to  the  passage  of  the 
animal  from  the  state  of  gregariousness  to  that  of 
sociality  or  the  primitive  family  with  its  religious 
and  ethical  implications.  Man  and  his  Religion  be- 
gan with  the  family.  Our  concern,  therefore,  is  not 
with  the  evolution  of  man  from  animahty,  but  with 
man  himself  from  the  moment  he  became  man  exist- 
ing in  the  family  relation. 

In  attempts  to  determine  the  original  form,  or 
forms,  of  Religion,  we  must  derive  what  light  we 
may  from  the  study  not  only  of  the  psycho- 

1  1  .  ri-  11  Naturism. 

logical  experience  of  cultivated  man,  but 
of  that  also  of  our  childhood,  and  of  modern  savage 
and  nature-peoples  as  well.  The  psychical  states  of 
childhood  cast  light  upon  the  states  of  the  conscious- 
ness of  primitive  man.  The  child,  from  the  first, 
thinks  and  speaks  in  what  Philosophy  terms  the 
category  of  causality,  and  it  is  the  necessary  form 
of  his  nascent  reason,  though  obviously  he  is  not 

*  Gi ff or d  Lectures,  vol.  i.,  p.  66. 


78  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


conscious  of  it  as  a  law  of  thought.  His  attention  is 
riveted  at  first  upon  external  objects. 

Primitive  man  may  be  contemplated  as  he  stands 
with  childlike  wonder  amidst  the  scenes  of  nature. 
By  turns,  timid  and  confident,  awed  and  delighted, 
as  yet  not  distinguishing  his  own  soul  from  the  limbs 
of  his  body  which  he  moves,  yet  conscious  of  his 
own  agency,  he  attributes  agency  like  his  own  to  the 
objects  of  Nature.  The  rolling  or  resting  stone,  the 
rushing  stream,  the  animal  which  springs  away  at  his 
approach,  the  cloud  which  sails  across  the  sky,  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars,  which  rise  and  vanish,  the 
light  which  alternates  with  darkness,  all  seem  ani- 
mated with  the  life  of  which  he  is  conscious.  All 
physical  phenomena  seem  to  be  agents  swayed  by 
passions  and  motives  like  his  own,  which  urge  him 
to  activity.  The  cognition  of  his  own  agency,  is  the 
first  manifestation  of  intelligence,  with  which  is 
united  his  discernment  of  agency  external  to  self. 
The  agencies  are  in  Nature  as  manifold  as  the  ob- 
jects and  forces  which  excite  his  wonder,  the  power 
to  unify  them  in  a  Supreme  Agency  remaining  dor- 
mant until  a  later  stage  of  reflection.  The  little  child 
we  are  told,  saw  the  moon  hiding  behind  every  tree 
he  passed  in  the  forest,  and  thought  there  were  as 
many  moons  as  there  were  trees  until  assured  it  was 
the  same  moon. 

,  These  manifold  agencies  in  the  objective  world 
awe  him  with  their  mysteriousness,  menace  him 
with  their  superhuman  power  to  do  him  harm,  or 
challenge   his   gratitude  by   their  genial  aid  in  his 


Psychological  Ge^tesis  of  Religion.  79 


weakness,  and  their  kindly  provision  for  his  wants. 
These  natural  phenomena  assail  his  consciousness 
in  a  pell-mell  way ;  all  things  which  seem  to  him 
animate,  have  for  him  an  equal  power  and  dignity, 
until  by  experience  of  their  unequal  influence 
upon  his  welfare,  they  become  distinguished  into 
higher  and  lower,  stronger  and  weaker  agencies. 
The  crag,  the  torrent,  the  beast  of  prey,  are  found 
to  possess  less  power  to  injure  or  benefit  him  than 
the  storm-wind,  the  lightning,  or  the  sun-ray,  and 
the  latter  assume  giant  proportions  to  his  fancy. 
They  become  Titans  who  build  their  castles  in  the 
clouds,  celestial  warriors  hurling  their  spears  of  light- 
ning, and  the  sun  drives  his  chariot  to  plunge  from 
the  meridian  into  the  darkness  of  the  west. 

His  experience  soon  enables  him  to  disdain  the 
forces  which  prove  inferior  to  his  own  power,  and 
the  animal  he  slays,  the  stream  he  can  turn  from  its 
course,  and  the  tree  he  can  fell,  are  degraded  from 
their  supremacy  and  only  the  grander  powers  of 
Nature  maintain  higher  empire.  Terror  and  love, 
separate  or  combined,  are  the  motives  which  impel 
him  to  adore  the  powers  of  Nature  ;  and  terror  even, 
by  a  psychologic  law  of  man's  being,  passes  over  into 
ecstacy,  and  when  man  once  feels  that  he  has  ap- 
peased a  dread  Power,  and  has  gained  it  for  an  ally, 
the  love  of  the  tragic  finds  satisfaction  in  terrific  dis- 
plays of  power  which  no  longer  work  him  harm. 
This  is  Naturism,  the  original  form  of  man's  wor- 
ship in  which  Soul  and  Nature,  spirit  and  matter,  are 
not  in  thought  differentiated. 


8o  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


The  next  psychological  stage  is  the  discovery  of 
soul  as  distinct  from  body,  spirit  as  distinct  from 
matter,  a  discovery  of  more  moment  for  man  than 
that  of  gravitation  in  modern  science. 

Hitherto  the  agencies  in  Nature  have  been  identi- 
fied with  the  physical  phenomena  ;  appearance  and 
reality  have  been  confused.  Now  man  through  the 
discovery  of  his  own  soul  is  on  the  way  to  discern 
Soul  in  the  world.  Henceforth  the  world  will  be 
thronged  with  spirits  who  reside  in  that  which  is 
visible,  but  are  no  longer  identified  with  the  physical 
elements. 

How  came  man  to  make  the  discovery  of  soul  ? 
How  could  he  call  anything  soul  without  a  prior 
Discovery  of  conccpt  of  soul,  hoVcvcr  obscure  it  may 
soul.  have  been,  awaiting  the  occasion  which 

should  call  it  forth  into  clearer  apprehension  ?  Be- 
fore the  dream  in  which  he  left  his  body  to  engage 
in  the  spectral  hunt  could  suggest  to  him  a  soul,  he 
must  have  already  possessed  an  elementary  concept 
of  soul.*  If,  moreover,  the  shadow  cast  by  his  form 
gave  rise  to  the  thought  of  his  soul  distinct  from  his 
body,  the  shadow  could  act  only  as  stimulus  to  the 
clearer  apprehension  of  the  pre-existent  idea. 

Neither  dreams  nor  shadows  can  do  more  than 
make  clearer  the  dormant  idea  of  soul.  Man  in  the 
progress  of  his  thought  studies  the  mysteries  of  his 
own  constitution.  Conscious  of  the  agency  within 
his  own  body,  as  yet  identified  with  it,  and  discern- 
ing a  similar  agency  in  the  bodies  of  others,  startled 
*  Note  III. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  8 1 


by  the  stillness,  rigidity,  and  pallor  of  the  recumbent 
dead,  he  felt  that  the  real  agent  had  fled.  What 
more  natural  for  him  than  to  identifiy  that  vanished 
agency  with  the  breath  that  had  ceased.  To  expire 
is,  for  the  last  time,  to  breathe.  The  breath  must  be 
the  soul,  and  the  word  '*  breath  "  in  Sanscrit  is  the 
word  for.  the  soul.  Too  much  stress  however  may 
be  laid  upon  Philology  in  the  attempt  to  explain  the 
origin  of  the  belief  in  soul.  Psychology  helps  us  to 
more  confident  conclusions.  The  reappearance  in 
visions  of  the  night  of  departed  ancestors,  the  dreams 
of  the  hunter  of  ghostly  battles  with  beast  and 
foeman,  the  moving  shadows  of  his  form  and  of 
the  objects  of  Nature,  were  experiences  which  lib- 
erated the  idea  of  soul  latent  within  the  conscious- 
ness. 

Such  is  the  origin  of  Animism,  and  without  first  the 
*'  Anima,"  you  cannot,  declares  Prof.  Max  Muller, 
have  Animism.  This  emergence  of  the  idea  of  soul 
from  the  obscurity  of  consciousness  is  an  epochal 
discovery,  and  discovery  is  the  unveiling  of  what  was 
hidden  from  clear  knowledge. 

In  this  discovery  of  his  soul,  this  cognition  of  his 
selfhood  or  realness  of  being  which  is  the  centre  of 
all  agency  revealed  in  his  life,  man,  for  the  first 
time,  gains  the  power  to  discern  above  and  behind 
the  appearances  of  nature,  a  Spiritual  Reality. 

Intrinsic,  therefore,  to  this  primitive  philosophy  of 
Animism  are  the  metaphysical  concepts  of  our  present 
science,  held  as  yet  in  solution  to  be  precipitated  in 
a  later  stage  of  synthetic  reflection. 


82  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


Mr.  Tylor,  while  contending  that  in  the  doctrine 
of  souls  or  spirits  we  have  the  explanation  of  all 
Beiiefin  Religion,  fails  satisfactorily  to  relate  the 
spirits.  belief  in  souls  to  the  worship  of  the  Great 

Powers  of  Nature. 

Mr.  Spencer's  theory,  that  the  propitiation  of  dead 
ancestors  is  the  rudimentary  form  of  all  Religion,  is 
shattered  against  the  fact  of  the  worship  of  Great 
Nature  Powers  by  the  Vedic  Aryans,  and  by  the 
early  Greeks.  But  the  worship  of  the  Great  Powers 
of  Nature  must  have  marked  the  first  psychological 
stage  of  man's  development,  for  we  cannot,  by  any 
reflection,  derive  Nature  worship  from  the  belief  in 
souls,  and  it  is  further  difficult  to  see  how,  after  the 
discovery  of  the  soul,  man  could  have  lapsed  into  a 
religion  in  which  the  Nature  power  is  worshipped 
for  itself. 

To  say  that  belief  in  souls  is  at  the  base  of  all 
Religion,  is  to  deny,  first,  that  the  natural  being 
simply  as  visible  agency  could  be  worshipped,  a  fact 
for  which  we  have  indubitable  evidence  in  the  Vedic 
and  Greek  religions  where  Jupiter  is  just  the  sky, 
and  Helios  is  just  the  sun.  Sun  and  moon,  sky  and 
wind,  among  savages  of  the  present  day,  are  adored 
simply  as  natural  agents.  And,  secondly,  it  is  to 
make  primitive  man  too  much  of  a  psychologist,  as 
competent  to  distinguish  souls  from  matter,  before 
he  identified  them  in  his  worship.  If  we  vaporize 
the  concept  of  soul  into  mere  agency  without  per- 
sonality or  self-consciousness,  then  Naturism  and 
Animism  are  one,  and  Mr.  Tylor  may  claim  as  the 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  83 


basis  of  the  worship  of  the  living  Nature  element,  a 
belief  in  souls.  But  such  a  soul,  in  man  or  in  the 
natural  being,  is  an  inadequate  representative  of  the  ^ 

personal  soul,  which  obviously  is  a  discovery  of  man  L- 

in  acts  of  reflection  long  after  he  has  naively  adored 
the  Natural  Powers. 

That  primitive  ReHgion  manifests  itself  in  both 
the  worship  of  Manes  and  in  the  adoration  of  Na- 
ture Powers  must  be  conceded  from  the  study  of 
history.  And  that  this  domestic  religion  (in  which 
ancestral  souls  were  the  objects  of  veneration,)  and 
the  worship  of  Nature  Spirits,  existed  together, 
without  the  one  ever  being  confounded  with  the 
other,  and  entered  into  various  forms  of  combina- 
tion, is  also  to  be  admitted.  While,  then.  Ancestral 
and  Nature  Spirits  seem  to  have  a  coeval  and  inde- 
pendent origin,  and  must  be  accounted  for  by  dif- 
ferent psychological  motives,  the  question  is.  Which 
is  the  root  of  Religion,  the  beHef  in  spirits,  or  the 
naive  worship  of  Nature  ?  The  doctrine  of  souls  is 
not  necessary  to  explain  the  worship  of  Nature 
Powers,  in  which  is  not  yet  distinguished  the  sensi- 
ble element  from  the  supersensible  subject. 

The  Great  Natural  Deities  of  Vedic  Religion  take 
their  rise  from  natural  phenomena,  are  rooted  in  a 
past  in  which  the  sensible  element  and  the  agent 
within  it  were  conceived  as  one.  The  child  and  poet 
of  to-day  regard  Nature  as  animated,  as  a  living  being, 
without  resort  to  the  analogy  of  the  human  soul. 

The  Ancestral  and  Nature  Spirits  first  appear 
when  man  in  self-reflection  is  able  to  distinguish  his 


84  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


soul  from  his  body,  and  spirit  from  matter,  in  the 
objective  world.  The  organized  worship  of  Ances- 
tral Spirits,  the  cult  of  the  Manes,  was  probably  the 
more  original  cult  and  may  have  aided  human 
thought  to  a  clearer  separation  of  the  supersensible 
subject  from  the  sensible  element,  and  to  a  more 
definite  personification  of  Nature  Spirits  in  the 
great  mythical  Gods  whose  roots  are  found  in  the 
phenomena  of  Nature. 

Science,  then,  studying  the  operation  of  the  Divine 
Law  of  development  discerns  three  stages  of  reli- 
Three  stages  gious  progress,  NatuHsm,  Animism,  An- 
ofprogress.  thropomorphism,  which  conduct  to 
Monotheism,  the  goal  of  all  religion.  These  stages 
of  growth  cannot  be  demarcated  in  a  rigid  temporal 
succession,  for  the  later  are  always  implicit  in  the 
earlier  stages,  and  it  is  not  a  cause  for  surprise  that 
the  Monotheistic  instinct  is  at  times  manifest 
amidst  the  opulent  pluralisms  of  the  first  three 
stages  of  religious  thought  and  feeling.  In  certain 
periods,  and  among  certain  peoples,  the  three  mani- 
festations not  only,  but  the  Monotheistic  conception 
of  Religion  as  well,  are  found  to  be  contemporary 
impulses.  Progress  and  retrogression  will  be  de- 
termined by  climatic  and  geographical  conditions, 
and  by  the  genius  of  the  race  which  is  subjected  to 
them.  One  people  may  rapidly  liberate  itself  from 
psychical  states  which  another  will  take  over  into  later 
historic  life.  "  From  north  to  south  of  Africa," 
says  Waitz,  "  the  negroes  adore  one  supreme  God, 
in  addition  to  their  numberless  fetiches."  Even  in 
some  forms  of  Christianity,  the  survival  of  animistic 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  85 


and  even  fetichistic  impulses  are  recognized,  and  on 
the  other  hand  in  primitive  stages  of  Religion,  obscure 
fore-gleams  of  a  unitary  Power  behind  the  manifold 
phenomena  of  the  world  are  disclosed.  But  science, 
on  the  whole,  is  justified  in  this  delimitation  of  the 
successive  stages,  as  marking  the  psychological  order 
of  dominant  religious  conceptions. 

From  Naturism  to  the  discernment  of  the  soul  in 
Man  and  in  Nature,  was  a  stupendous  progress  of 
thought.  Will  this  great  discovery  by  Animistic 
man  make  a  rectilinear  progress  inevita-  Progress  and 
ble,  or  will  the  course  of  development  be  ®*'"°^''"^*°°- 
at  times  turned  back  ?  Both  advance  and  retrogres- 
sion are  involved  in  the  operation  of  the  Law  of 
Development.  Whether  the  host  of  Spirits  now 
distinguished  from  the  physical  phenomena  shall 
be  increasingly  moralized,  shall  be  promoted  to  an 
Olympian  authority  and  dignity,  deliver  their  the- 
mistes  to  earthly  princes  and  exercise  paternal  care 
over  men  and  their  affairs,  or  whether  they  shall  be- 
come nameless  amorphous  demons  flitting  every- 
where between  heaven  and  earth,  forcing  into  the 
background  the  Shining  Ones,  the  lofty  Nature 
Powers  which  begin  to  assume  the  qualities  of  hu- 
man souls,  will  depend  upon  the  aptitude  or  inca- 
pacity of  each  people  for  a  social  progress. 

Morality,  though  a  divine  capacity  of  the  soul,  is 
yet,  so  far  as  the  special  form  which  the  idea  of 
right  is  to  take  on,  a  product  of  man's  interaction  of 
social  and  political  progress.  Religion  Morality  and 
and  Morality  from  the  first  inseparable,  Re»ei°"- 
having  a  common  root  in  the  Divine  Ground,  existed 


S6  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


as  germinal  impulses  to  be  developed  together  as 
man  advances  in  social  relations.  The  religion  of 
the  family,  in  itself  a  moral  fellowship,  exerts  its  in- 
fluence upon  morals,  and  as  social  culture  makes 
progress,  morals  react  upon  Religion  to  exalt  its 
character.  Religious  motives  constituted  the  found- 
ation of  morals  in  the  family,  the  primordial  unit 
of  society,  for  the  members  venerated  the  same 
Manes,  and  bound  by  a  common  tie,  experienced 
mutual  esteem  and  affection.  As  the  family  was 
enlarged  to  the  gens  or  the  tribe,  thus  assuming  a 
wider  social  character,  the  conceptions  and  institu- 
tions of  Religion  kept  pace  with  this  progress.  Thus 
Religion  was  moralized  in  degree  as  a  people  pos- 
sessed genius  for  social  discipline  and  unanimity  of 
conduct,  and  conversely,  morals  were  religionized. 
But  when,  on  the  contrary,  a  people  in  selfish  cen- 
trifugal impulse  seeks  to  disperse  itself  into  families 
or  groups  without  social  aspiration,  its  Gods  will  not 
become  moralized  and  then  be  seated  on  some  Olym- 
pus, but  will  be  chosen  from  the  host  of  genii  which 
exist  in  the  dark  realm  of  spirits. 

In  this  form  of  Animism,  the  relation  of  man  to 
the  object  of  worship  becomes  less  moral,  and  the 
Retrogressive  sorcercr  appears,  who  will  strive  to  com- 
Animism.  p^j  ^j^g  spirit,  by  his  incantations,  to  do 
his  bidding.  Magic  is  the  science  of  opportunity. 
These  mutually  hostile  spirits,  a  rabble  of  dread, 
formless  powers  haunting  the  forests  and  caverns, 
shrieking  in  the  winds,  or  lurking  in  the  morass,  are 
to  be  subdued  by  spells  and  the  use  of  ineffable 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  87 


names.  The  Accado-Sumerian  exorcism,  like  that 
of  the  modern  African  and  Polynesian  and  aborig- 
inal American,  may  have  arisen  from  the  existence 
of  disease  which  the  medicine  man  regarded  as  the 
work  of  malevolent  spirits,  and  would  expel  from 
the  body.  Spiritism  in  the  early  Accadian  religion, 
would  seem  to  have  begun  its  ascent  to  a  higher 
form  through  the  Totemism  which  saw  in  animals, 
as  well  as  in  other  objects,  beneficent  spirits."^  The 
ox  whose  labors  helped  man  to  construct  a  social 
life,  and  the  fish  which  supplied  him  with  food,  were 
adored  as  tutelary  beings ;  the  magician  gradually 
assumed  the  character  of  a  priest,  and  moral  dis- 
tinctions were  more  clearly  accentuated,  f 

The  process  of  mythological  evolution  began  in 
the  Accadian  Religion,  and  the  Cosmical  Powers, 
which  are  hardly  yet  definite  personali-  Mythological 
ties,  assumed  the  distinctions  of  sex.  But  Evolution, 
this  Anthropomorphism  was  still  vague  and  resulted 
in  hardly  more  than  the  power  to  use  an  ineffable 
name  with  which  to  break  the  spells  of  demons.  The 
influx  of  Semitic  conceptions,  and  the  arrival  of  a 
greater  political  unification,  together  with  the  cul- 
ture of  astrology,  subsequently  bore  a  part  in  the 
development  of  Chaldean  Religion. 

Among  Nature-peoples,  the  working  of  the  mytho- 
poeic  fancy  is  arrested,  and  Spiritism  is  corrupted 
into  Fetichism.  It  is  no  longer  a  generous  fancy 
which  discerns  in  sun,  sky,  and  wind  great  Spiritual 

*  Professor  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures, 
f  Note  IV. 


88  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


Powers,  but  is  now  a  degenerate  and  calculating  be- 
lief in  man's  ability  to  bribe  or  terrify  zoomorphic 
or  amorphic  demons  which,  by  accident,  or  by 
strategy  of  man,  may  have  been  imprisoned  in  the 
tree  or  stone.  That  Religion  will  become  degraded 
as  morals  decay  is  as  true  as  that  it  will  take  on 
nobler  forms  when  social  aspiration  purifies  manners 
and  morals. 

Explorers  have  been  astonished  to  find  savages 
chaste  and  courteous,  and  at  the  same  time  revenge- 
ful and  cruel.  Side  by  side  with  a  naive  truthfulness 
and  many  natural  graces  of  manner,  and  unstudied 
moral  acts  which  induce  the  sentimentalist  to  think 
that  natural  is  better  than  civilized  society,  there 
flourish  in  savage  life  inhuman  and  unspeakable  cus- 
toms and  dispositions  which  make  social  progress 
impossible,  and  compel  the  religious  impulse  to  as- 
sume the  low  and  grotesque  forms  of  magic.  The 
Nature-peoples,  with  no  ideal  of  culture  to  pursue, 
and  without  desire  for  social  order,  children  of  wild 
individual,  caprice,  become  more  and  more  morally 
untrustworthy  and  their  religion  is  correspondingly 
degraded.  But  the  historic  peoples  have  not  halted 
in  the  animistic  or  spiritistic  stage  of  thought.  Ideal 
ends  of  civilization  began  to  dawn  upon  the  mind. 
Neighboring  tribes  felt  an  impulse  towards  social 
intercourse  and  discerned  the  advantages  of  political 
solidarity.  The  invention  of  alphabets  and  writing 
gave  birth  to  literature.  Conquest  and  commerce 
brought  with  them  political  unification,  and  some- 
times a  syncretism  of  religions, 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  89 


It  is  when  we  attempt  to  construct  a  bridge  of 
thought  from  the  animistic  stage  to  that  of  Poly- 
theism, and  to  the  stage  indicated  by  ^^^^  ^^^j^, 
the  confusing  word  Henotheism,  that  we  ism  to 

again  encounter  difficulty.  By  Henothe-  °  ^  **^™' 
ism  we  may  understand  the  exaltation  to  successive 
supremacy  of  each  one  of  many  Gods,  as  if  a 
nation  were  to  be  governed  by  a  college  of  mon- 
archs,  oneof  whom  fora  time  should  wear  the  crown, 
to  be  displaced  by  another  member  of  the  col- 
lege. 

From  which  primitive  form  of  Religion,  from 
Naturism  or  Animism,  is  the  transition  made  to  the 
humanized  Gods?  Did  both  these  forms  contribute 
to  the  development  of  the  college  of  Deities,  and 
their  alternate  occupation  of  the  throne  ?  Mr.  Tylor, 
as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  contends  that  the 
Great  Gods  of  Nature  sprang  from  the  spirits  of 
Nature,  and  then  were  endowed  with  the  traits  of 
human  individuality  and  thus  take  their  place  in  the 
mythological  pantheon.  This  process  of  humaniza- 
tion,  he  assumes,  is  inspired  by  the  existence  of  dig- 
nities and  sovereignties  which  have  arisen  in  the 
social  and  political  order,  in  which  ancestral  found- 
ers and  eponymous  heroes  are  held  in  respect. 

This,  we  may  again  remark,  is  to  assign  to  Anim- 
ism the  chief  role  in  the  origin  of  ReHgion.  It  is 
true  that  among  some  peoples  it  is  possible  to  trace 
the  passage  from  belief  in  spirits  to  the  belief  in  the 
great  Gods  of  Nature.  The  religion  of  China,  though 
it  does  not  individualize  sharply  the  Gods,  has  ad- 


90  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief. 


vanced  from  the  lower  belief  in  spirits.^  The  dis- 
tinction, however,  of  the  Gods  from  souls  and  spirits 
is  easily  made,  not  only  by  civilized  man,  but  by 
savages  who  separate  in  thought  the  gods  which 
have  been  individualized  and  have  names,  from 
mere  spirits  or  genii  who  are  without  form  and 
anonymous.  Obviously,  Animism  cannot  wholly 
account  for  the  plural  mythology  of  the  Egyptians, 
Hindus,  and  the  Greco-Roman  peoples,  however 
much  it  may  have  influenced  them  through  the 
cult  of  the  dead  and  belief  in  Ancestral  Spirits. 
Not  primarily  in  the  worship  of  spirits,  but  in  the 
worship  of  personified  objects  of  Nature,  to  whom,  in 
the  gradual  progress  of  social  and  political  conscious- 
ness, moral  qualities  were  attributed,  must  we  find 
the  explanation  of  their  religions. 

The  active  cosmic  Forces  are  thought  to  be  per- 
sons like  men.  The  sun  is  at  one  time  Phaethon 
Mythopoeic  driving  his  chariot,  at  another  time  Her- 
impuise.  culcs  cxccuting  twelvc  great  tasks  which 
stand  for  the  twelve  hours  or  the  twelve  months,  or 
the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac ;  again,  Ixion  revolving 
on  his  wheel,  and  then  Apollo  sending  shafts  from 
his  bow  of  silver.  The  separation  of  these  person- 
alities from  the  natural  phenomena  is  not  wholly 
made  until  civilization  has  far  advanced.  In  the 
^neid  the  word  '*  Jupiter  "  is  used  for  the  sky.  It  is 
when  these  deities  have  been  moralized  and  brought 
into  intimate  relations  with  man's  social  and  politi- 

*  D'Alviella,  however,  thinks  that  in  China  belief  in  spirits  was 
grafted  upon  Nature  worship. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  91 


cal  life,  that  they  cease  to  be  identified  with  natural 
phenomena,  stand  out  upon  the  background  of  the 
religious  consciousness  as  Divine  personalities,  and 
are  assembled  upon  Mount  Olympus  or  in  the  halls 
of  Valhalla. 

Professor  Max  Miiller  naturally  rejects  the  idea 
that  all  Gods  were  originally  spirits,  and  asserts  that 
many  Gods,  and  chiefly  those  of  the  Indo-Germanic 
peoples,  were  personified  natural  phenomena.  But 
while  he  finds  the  genesis  of  the  belief  in  Gods  in 
the  impressions  of  Nature  upon  the  imagination, 
with  prudent  acceptance  of  the  facts  of  psychology, 
he  also  finds  in  man's  experience  of  death,  and  in 
the  mandates  of  conscience  and  his  sympathy  with 
joys  and  sorrows  of  friends,  as  well  as  in  the  light  of 
the  sun  and  the  flush  of  the  dawn,  an  awakening  of 
the  sense  of  a  Power  beyond  the  finite, — conceptions 
of  law  and  duty,  with  emotions  of  human  love,  all 
entering  as  elements  into  his  Religion. 

Conceding,  then,  that  we  cannot  precisely  delimit 
the  stages  of  religious  development,  nor  be  sure 
that  advance  has  been  straight  onward  Historic  peo- 
from  Naturism  through  Animism  to  An-  pies  as  coios- 
thropomorphism  and  Humanism,  and 
thence  to  philosophic  Monotheism,  conceding  that 
they  at  times  seem  to  blend  and  part,  and  alter- 
nately to  dominate  the  consciousness,  still,  science 
need  not  hesitate  to  accept  them  in  this  logical 
order  as  way-marks  of  man's  religious  progress.  The 
early  Naturism  and  Spiritism  survive  in  the  higher 
religions.     The  mistake  lies  in  making  monotheistic 


92  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


ideas  which  are  not  yet  liberated  from  primitive 
conceptions  to  have  been  antecedent  to  them. 

Each  of  the  historic  peoples  may  be  regarded  as 
a  colossal  man,  with  varying  states  of  religious  con- 
chaideo-  sciousncss,  yct  revealing  a  dominant  idea. 
Assyrian  The  Chaldco-Assyrian  Religion  reveals 
Religion.  several  stages  of  growth.  Its  belief  in  the 
power  of  magic,  of  Accadian  origin,  is  modified  by 
Semitic  beliefs  in  Gods  who  constitute  a  pantheistic 
unity,  but  rising  and  falling  like  waves  of  the  sea, 
they  struggle  in  vain  for  individuality  or  sove- 
reignty. The  Gods  of  the  Chaldeo-Assyrian  Relig- 
ion wear  a  spectral  character.  The  sculptured 
demons,  the  creation  of  terror  relieved  at  times  by 
a  flash  of  higher  feeling,  betray  in  their  forms  the 
Animism  which  is  identical  with  that  of  the  modern 
savage.  The  highest  point  is  reached  in  its  astro- 
theology  in  which  sidereal  Naturism  is  but  slightly 
tinged  with  Anthropomorphism,  and  the  use  of 
magic  to  exorcise  the  demons  of  the  world  lingers 
on  to  the  last.  The  genius  of  the  Chaldeo-Assyrian 
Religion  is  animistic. 

Turning  now  to  India,  Religion  originates  in 
Naturism,  and  ends  with  metaphysics.  The  Hindus 
Indie  cannot   be   included    among   the  peoples 

Religion.  ^yj^Q  have  a  history.  Without  records  or 
traditions  of  any  great  political  struggles,  only  one 
fixed  light  glimmers  in  the  obscurity  of  the  past, 
and  that  is  the  reign  of  Chandragupta  contemporary 
with  Alexander.  Linguistic  Palaeontology  enables 
us,  however,  to  trace  back  the  Aryans  of  the  Punjab 


Psychological  Gc7iesis  of  Religion.  93 


to  the  ancient  tribes,  who,  as  Dr.  Otto  Schrader  now 
thinks,  moved  away  from  the  steppes  of  South 
Russia.  In  opposition  to  Gruppe,  who  boldly  as- 
serts that  the  Indo-Europeans  had  no  God  of  heaven 
or  light,  that  they  indeed  were  without  Religion, 
and  that  Mythology  was  not  the  religious  language 
of  the  people,  was  in  fact  the  ^'  creation  and  property 
of  the  higher  classes,  and  that  the  Rig-Veda  reveals 
us  anything  but  the  sway  of  the  naive  poetry  of 
nature,"  Schrader  concludes  after  patient  inquiry, 
"that  it  is  an  unassailable  fact  that  in  all  Indo- 
European  Religions  certain  supreme  Gods  and 
national  Gods  have  been  evolved  out  of  natural 
phenomena."  And  he  finds  that  ancestor  worship 
and  cult  of  the  dead  have  no  place  in  the  Homeric 
world,  but  gradually  in  post-Homeric  times  the  Di- 
vinity of  departed  heroes  appears.  Divi,  Manes 
Lares,  etc.,  are  indeed  primitive  ideas  of  Romans, 
but  Linguistic  Science  does  not  force  us  to  regard 
ancestor  worship  as  primeval,  that  is,  as  Indo-Euro- 
pean. 

According  to  Pictet  the  Aryans,  3000  B.  C.  were 
still  undivided  peoples,  but  1500  years  or  more,  later, 
we  have  the  Vedas,— the  Hindus  and  Persians  hav- 
ing separated  from  their  cousins,  the  Celts,  Latins, 
Greeks,  Teutons,  and  Slavs.  The  tendency  to  Hen- 
otheism  is  then  in  full  sway,  and  in  one  hymn  of  the 
Rig- Veda  the  movement  from  multiplicity  towards 
unity  is  clearly  manifest.  God  is  called  Indra,  Var- 
una,  and  Agni.  Not  only  this  primitive  impulse  "  to 
give  Polytheism  a  monarchical  apex,"  but  the  iden- 


94  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief, 


tification  of  one  God  with  another  or  with  several 
others,  indicates  the  activity,  at  this  early  stage,  of 
the  monistic  impulse.  Rut  in  this  exchange  of  at- 
tributes we  discern  already  a  pantheistic  movement 
of  thought,  and  the  Gods  became  forms  of  a  protean 
impersonal  principle  of  the  world. 

The  metaphysic  of  Brahmanism  succeeds  the  sim- 
ple beliefs  of  the  Vedic  period,  and  in  these  profound 
Indie  speculations  of  the  Brahmanic  age  we  find 

Religion.  anticipations  of  Greek  and  German  sys- 
tems, hylozoistic  pantheism,  and  idealistic  monism. 
*'  Brahmanic  Religion,"  says  Prof.  E.  Caird,  **  only 
rose  to  a  pantheism  which  was  an  acosmism,  to  a 
unity  which  was  no  principle  of  order  in  the  mani- 
fold differences  of  things,  but  merely  a  gulf  in  which 
all  difference  was  lost."  *  We  may  then  say  that 
the  colossal  man  in  India  was  a  metaphysician,  who 
never  arrived  at  a  determinate  Theism.  No  other 
people,  however,  has  revealed  such  capacity  for  sub- 
tle dialectic,  so  keen  an  insight  into  the  mysteries 
of  being,  or  painted  the  scenes  of  Nature  with  such 
gorgeous  and  attractive  colors. 

If  in  Indie  speculation  the  individual  is  lost  sight 
of,  and  political  enterprise  is  paralyzed  and  progress 
Religion  of  made  impossible,  the  Persian,  on  the  con- 
^'■an-  trary,    inspired    by  the   conflict  between 

light  and  darkness,  symbolic  of  the  ethical  antithesis 
of  good  and  evil,  became  a  man  of  action,  flew  upon 
swift  steeds  from  conquest  to  conquest.  "  The  mon- 
archy of  Persia,"  says  Ranke,  "  fulfils  a  high  mission." 

*  Ezolu.  of  Relig.,  vol.  i.,  p.  263. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  95 


The  Gods  of  Iran,  pure  and  shining  ones,  were  im- 
patient of  the  flagitious  superstitions  of  other  peo- 
ples. The  duel  between  light  and  darkness  is  to 
end,  and  goodness  is  to  conquer.  But  as  Ahriman, 
the  spirit  of  evil,  proceeds  from  Ormuzd,  evil  seems 
to  be  inherent  in  the  Ground  of  Being,  and  thus  has 
no  positive  existence.  The  great  question  of  the 
origin  of  evil  fails  of  solution,  and  though  there  is  a 
latent  Monotheism  in  the  religion  of  Iran,  a  natural- 
istic Dualism  seems  to  hold  it  back  from  a  clear 
articulation. 

"In  all  religions,"  says  Max  Duncker,  "  when  they  have  reached 
a  certain  stage  of  development,  the  impulse  arises  to  find  the  unity 
of  the  Divine  Being  among  the  multifarious  crowd  of  Deities.  On 
the  Ganges,  the  Brahmins  or  priests  attained  to  this  unity  by  exalting 
the  power  of  the  holy  acts,  which  controlled  the  deities,  into  Lordship 
by  uniting  with  this  conception  the  great  Breath  or  World-Soul,  the 
source  of  life  springing  up  in  Nature." 

In  Iran,  the  reform  did  not  discern  Nature  as 
unity,  and  therefore  Dualism  held  its  ground. 

Turning  now  to  Greece,  we  find  that  the  Naturism 
of  the  Vedic  Aryans  under  the  plastic  touch  of 
Greek  genius  becomes  transformed,  not  Religion  of 
into  the  metaphysical  abstraction  wherein  *^<*  Greeks, 
no  moral  personalities  survive,  but  into  that  nobler 
thought  which  personifies  and  humanizes  the  Na- 
ture-Powers, which,  through  sestheticism,  and  then 
through  conscience,  culminates  in  tragic  poetry  and 
monotheistic  Philosophy.  The  last,  expressed  in  a 
language  of  marvellous  flexibility,  has  left  its  im- 
press upon  all  the  literatures  of  the  modern  world. 


96  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


If  the  religious  genius  of  India  was  metaphysical, 
and  that  of  Persia  was  ethical,  that  of  the  Greeks  is 
found  in  the  incessant  longing  for  the  realization  of 
harmony  in  the  world  of  sense,  in  the  social  life,  and 
in  the  soul  of  man.  The  brilliant  aestheticism  of  the 
Greek  did  not  permit  him  to  rest  in  frivolity,  and  in 
no  other  land  was  the  Sphinx  more  earnestly  ques- 
tioned, nowhere  else  was  the  conscience  more  deeply 
stirred,  as  the  works  of  the  great  tragedians  plainly 
make  manifest.  Through  their  Pelasgic  origin,  the 
mythologic  development  of  the  Greeks  is  to  be 
traced  to  the  Aryan  Naturism  of  the  East,  deriv- 
ing also  from  the  Phoenicians  new  mythologic  con- 
tributions. The  humane  genius  of  the  Greek  soon 
extricated  itself  from  the  sensuous  and  cruel  alien 
religion  of  the  Phoenician,  and  Theseus  vanquishes 
the  Minotaur  of  Crete. 

In  the  first  stage  of  Naturism  there  is  as  deep  a 
sympathy  of  the  soul  of  man  with  the  life  of  Nature 
as  we  find  in  the  highest  poetry  or  philosophy  of  our 
civilized  age.*  But  that  sympathy  is  at  first  but 
feebly  productive  of  moral  ideas.  Greek  thought, 
inspired  by  the  marvellous  beauty  of  Nature  in  the 
fair  land  of  Greece,  rose  to  a  mastery  over  it,  and 
idealized  it,  projecting  upon  its  Gods  the  greatness 
of  man  himself.  The  intuition  of  the  Order  of  the 
World  was  accompanied  by  a  perception  of  a  higher 
Ideal  demanded  by  intellect  and  conscience.  Greek 
Humanism  in  post-Homeric  times  began  to  repre- 
sent its  Gods  in  a  moral  alto  relievo.     Humanism 

*  See  Einleitung  in  die  Griechische  Mythologies  by  Ludwig  Preller. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  97 


developed  into  Philosophy,  and  philosophic  thought 
passed  through  stages  of  evolution  analogous  to 
those  of  mythological  development.  Philosophy 
was  at  first  naturistic. 

In  the  school  of  Ionia,  Thales  finds  the  source  of 
all  things  in  water,  Anaximander  in  the  air,  and  Hera- 
clitus  finds  fire  to  be  the  primitive  sub-  stages  of 
stance.     Diogenes   of  Apollonia  did   not  Greek 

succeed  in  differentiating  the  rational  ^  °^°^  ^* 
essence  from  the  air.  It  is  first  with  Anaxagoras 
of  Clazomenae  that  Mind  is  seen  to  organize  the 
world,  and  thus  a  humanistic  Philosophy  takes  its 
rise,  to  degenerate  later,  however,  into  the  scepticism 
and  pessimism  of  the  Sophists. 

In  the  works  of  the  great  tragic  poets,  Humanism 
finds  expression  of  its  loftiest  moral  convictions. 
Human  destiny  in  its  mournful  aspect  is  depicted 
by  iEschylus  and  Sophocles  ;  Eternal  Justice  is  not 
always  distinguished  from  fate  ;  remorse  is  set  forth 
with  an  appalling  emphasis,  and  thus  afford  presages 
of  the  approach  of  clearer  ideas  of  freedom  and  re- 
sponsibility. The  note  of  charity  rendering  good 
for  evil  is  struck  in  Antigone,  and  dramatic  thought 
hovers  about  the  conception  of  the  Divine  Father- 
hood which  vouchsafes  forgiveness  to  the  sinner. 
CEdipus  goes  into  the  light  at  last  like  the  passing 
of  Arthur : 

'•  So  he  died. 

No  death  to  mourn  for, — did  not  leave  the  world 
"Worn  out  with  pain  and  sickness  ;  but  his  end. 
If  any  ever  was,  was  wonderful." 


98  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief, 


In  Socrates  and  Plato  we  have  the  culmination 
of  Philosophy.  Art  reached  its  highest  point  in 
the  age  of  Pericles.  Philosophy,  with  the  Socratic 
school,  divined  the  unity  of  the  world,  but  a  dual- 
istic  element,  the  belief  that  evils  could  not  be  over- 
come, was  blended  with  its  metaphysics."^  Perhaps 
thought  in  no  age  has  surpassed  the  flight  of  Socratic 
Philosophy.  The  mind  of  man  seemed  about  to  at- 
tain the  highest  truths  of  Religion.  Later,  however, 
so  inveterate  are  the  lower  religious  ideas  of  the  peo- 
ples which  refuse  to  be  wholly  transformed  by  even  a 
brilliant  culture,  we  find  the  wild  elements  of  Natur- 
ism  to  some  extent  still    reasserting  their  influence. 

We  have  to  deplore  the  decadence  of  Hellenism, 
which  brought  the  genius  of  Greece- in  the  time  of 
^     ^  Alexander  into  a  new  vassalap;e  to  the 

Decadence  *^ 

of  Greek  rcHgions  of  Nature.  A  degenerate  phi- 
Phiiosophy.  iQ3Qpj-^y  helped  to  repristinate  to  some 
extent  the  Nature  religions.  Monarchs  were  dei- 
fied, and  Euhemerus  saw  in  the  Gods,  only  ancient 
Kings  exalted  by  superstition  to  the  skies.  The 
sceptre  passed  from  Athens  to  Alexandria.  The 
cosmopolitan  city  of  the  Ptolemies  extended  hospi- 
tality to  all  religions,  and  a  general  scepticism  arose, 
during  which  the  elevation  of  Mythology,  which 
had  been  promoted  by  the  great  artists  and  great 
poets  of  the  age  of  Pericles  was  arrested.  Epicurus 
went  so  far  as  to  give  to  the  Gods  human  form  and 
difference  of  sex,  and  assigns  them,  as  their  habita- 
tion, the  space  between  the  worlds.    The  disciples  of 

*  Plato's  Tluctietus. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  99 


Aristotle,  Dicearchus  and  Strato,  revolted  from  their 
master,  and  in  their  system  found  no  necessity  for 
God,  to  explain  the  world  order.  Strato,  abandon- 
ing the  theology  of  the  great  Stagirite,  gave  a 
physical  explanation  to  the  world,  and  reduced  the 
idea  of  God  to  a  level  with  unconscious  activity  of 
Nature.  Warmth  and  cold  were  called  into  service 
as  universal  and  active  sources  of  being,  and  the 
soul's  immortality  was  rejected.  *  Academic  scep- 
ticism reached  its  zenith  in  Carneades,  whose  con- 
clusion is  that  of  pure  agnosticism. 

In  the  Philosophy  of  the  earlier  Stoics  there  were 
flashes  of  pure  truth,  but  the  general  trend  was  not 
upward,  and  the  impulse  of  Platonic  thought  spent 
its  force.  Scepticism  at  last  committed  suicide, 
when  without  a  blush  it  could  be  written,  ''  There  is 
nothing  shameful  or  right  in  itself ;  law  and  custom 
alone  determine  equity  and  inequity."  Tragedy 
and  poetry  lost  the  fire  of  inspiration,  and  in  the 
main  fell  to  didactic  mediocrity.  Whatever  art 
lingered  on  was  but  the  reminiscence  of  the  splendid 
age  of  Pericles. 

Turning  now  to  Semitic  Religion,  whatever  ideas 
are  held  in  common  by  Semitic  and  Aryan  peoples, 
it  cannot  be  affirmed  that  these  parallel  Semitic 
streams  have  the  same  origin.  It  is  a  far  Religion, 
cry,  Prof.  Max  Miiller  tell  us,  from  India  to  Baby- 
lon, and  the  few  coincidences  between  Hebrew  and 
Sanscrit,  no  more  than  those  existing  between  Eng- 
lish and  Chinese,  prove  community  of  origin.  Re- 
*  Zeller's  Outlines  of  Greek  Philos. 


100  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


semblances  are  to  be  traced  to  the  identity  of  the 
constitution  of  human  nature  in  different  lands. 
The  monotheistic  instinct  attributed  by  Renan  to 
the  Semitic  race  has  not  won  the  recognition  of 
scholars. 

The  grain  of  truth  in  Kenan's  theory  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  purely  Semitic  races  seem  not  to  have 
Theory  of  posscsscd  an  opulcnt  Mythology;  and  in 
Renan.  ^-j^e  f^^t  that  they  had  one  chief  or  tribal 

God ;  that  the  names  Baal  or  Master,  Moloch  or 
King,  Adonis  or  Lord,  are  merely  descriptive  of  the 
God  of  the  tribe  as  its  exclusive  separate  deity, 
standing  in  vital  relation  to  the  particular  people.* 
The  unity,  however,  is  not  that  Qf  Monotheism,  as  a 
belief  in  a  Universal  Deity,  but  the  exclusive  one- 
ness of  the  particular  God  worshipped  by  the  tribe 
in  distinction  from  the  Gods  of  other  tribes,  which 
were  not  by  them  denied  to  be  Gods  for  other 
peoples. 

Professor  Baethgen,  however,  has  adopted  a  par- 
tially monotheistic  view  of  Semitic  religion.  He 
Professor  surmises  that  the  Semites  began  with 
Baethgen.  monism,  the  worship  of  El,  or  God  "  not 
the  totality  of  the  separate  Gods,  but  the  undivided 
and  impersonal  essence."  f  This  is  to  suppose  that 
no  Nature  myths  are  to  be  found  in  Semitic  Re- 
ligion ;  but  Noldeke  reminds  us  that  where 
Sun,  Moon,  and  Venus-star  are  wor- 
shipped, there  is  Nature-Religion.     But  not  from 

*  C.  G.  Montefiore,  Hibbert  Lectures,  p.  23,  1892. 
f  C.  G.  Montefiore,  Hibbert  Lectures^  p.  24. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  loi 


any  one  source  can  we  derive  the  elements  of  Se- 
mitic Religion.  Even  if  Monolatry  antedated  the 
teachings  of  Moses,  the  tribal,  nameless  deities 
would  seem  to  have  been  of  the  animistic  type. 
For  when  they  became,  later  in  a  polytheistic  stage 
of  thought,  veritable  Gods  with  names  as  persons, 
female  personalities  appear,  and  sex  is  introduced 
into  the  Godhead  by  a  natural  psychological  process. 
Mr.  Montefiore  refers  to  Pietschmann,  the  latest  his- 
torian of  Phoenicia,  who  thinks  that  the  progenitors 
of  the  Canaanites  and  Phoenicians  worshipped  one 
clan  deity. 

Mr.    Montefiore   argues   that    the   words    Ruler, 
Lord,   King,   were   vague   indefinite   titles    of   clan 
Gods   of    an    animistic,    not    a    personal 
character,  and  if  there  was  a  common  clan    ^^^TT  ^^ 

'  Montefiore. 

deity  of  the  ancestors  of  the  two  tribes, 
it  must  have  possessed  an  impersonal,  indetermi- 
nate value,  and  true  Monolatry  was  unveiled  by  the 
great  teacher  Moses.  The  fact  that  the  Israelites 
who  were  few  in  number,  yet  vanquished  the  more 
numerous  Canaanites  in  the  invasion,  affords  proof 
that  the  reign  of  Jahveh,  introduced  by  Moses, 
gave  them  esprit  du  corps  and  a  stronger  manhood. 
The  Canaanites  still  under  the  spell  of  animistic  and 
naturistic  conceptions  were  conquered  by  inferior 
numbers.  The  monotheistic  feeling  must  date  from 
the  imperial  influence  of  Moses,  and  was  rather  a 
Monolatry  than  a  Monotheism.  The  definite  con- 
ception of  a  Universal  God  and  Father  was  set  forth 
later  by  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century. 


102  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  monuments  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  and 
the  survivals  of  Arabian  traditions,  and  also  the 
tendencies  of  the  Jews  in  later  times  to  backslidings, 
have  been  cited  by  Max  Miiller  as  proof  of  a  poly- 
theistic rather  than  monotheistic  instinct  in  the 
Semitic  mind. 

Mr.  Robertson  Smith,  with  rigor,  traces  the  ex- 
istence of  Totemism  as  the  fundamental  idea  which 
underlies  the  development  of  Semitic  Religion,  by 
that,  meaning  the  blood  relationship  and  fellowship 
existing  between  the  clan  and  the  totem.  But  this 
emphasis  laid  upon  the  social  nature  of  that  religion 
has,  by  his  critics,  been  regarded  as  too  radical  a 
reconstruction  of  Semitic  history."^ 

Much  obscurity  lingers  about  the  subject  of  the 
primitive  Religion  of  the  Semites,  but  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  clearly  show  that  Accadic  ideas  and  cus- 
toms were  blended  with  the  old  Semitic  star-worship, 
and  in  the  Hebrew  literature,  there  survive  names  and 
forms  of  Accado-Babylonian  origin.f  But  the  He- 
brew Religion  has  for  us  a  surpassing  interest.  Here 
v/e  find  ourselves  breathing  a  purer  atmosphere.  A 
moral  sanctity  pervades  the  literature,  and  though 

*  Mr.  Joseph  Jacobs,  Biblical  Archeology,  "Totem  clans  in  the 
Bible,"  may  be  consulted. 

Professor  F.  B.  Jevons  {Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion, 
1896),  contends  that  an  amorphous  Monotheism  precedes  a  universal 
lapse  into  Totemism  among  all  peoples.  But  the  theory  that  Totem- 
ism has  figured  as  a  universal  lapse,  and  as  a  point  of  departure  to 
higher  religion,  is  too  exacting,  and  the  objections  too  insurmount- 
able to  permit  its  acceptance. 

t  See  Schrader's  Keilinschriften. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  103 


its  purity  is  alloyed  with  legends  and  myths  of  im- 
moral import,  and  the  veritable  part  of  its  history 
is,  much  of  it,  a  dolorous  confession  of  personal  and 
national  sin,  or  a  record  of  sanguinary  wars,  yet,  the 
candid  reader  must  discern  a  Power  above  the  nation 
"  making  for  righteousness"  and  reveahng  himself 
throughout  the  checkered  experience  of  Israel. 
The  Hebrew  Religion,  containing  many  elements 
derived  from  pre-Semitic  Religions,  is  unique  in  this 
possession  of  the  idea  of  righteousness.  At  what 
time  it  emerged  into  consciousness,  whether  in  the 
time  of  the  Abrahamites,  or  later,  in  the  midst  of 
alternate  progress  and  relapse,  it  is  never  lost,  in- 
deed is  a  crescendo  from  century  to  century. 

The  animism  and  fetichism  of  the  ancient  Ara- 
bia, the  sidereal  Naturism  of  the  Accado-Babylonian, 
sometimes  reassert  their  presence  in  the 

,..  f     f  ,,  T-v*  -r»  Superiority 

religion  of  Israel,  but  a  Divine  Power  of  Hebrew  to 
ureres  them  on  in  the  way  to  rip-hteous- °*^^'"  ^^™**^'^ 

°  .  J  ^  Religions. 

ness.  It  IS  a  serious  people,  without  any 
genius  for  metaphysics,  but  possessing  a  genius  for 
right  conduct.  As  Henry  More  said,  there  is  some- 
thing about  us  that  knows  better,  often,  what  we 
would  be  at,  than  we  ourselves  ;  so  Israel  was 
haunted  by  an  ideal  of  behavior  towards  Jehovah, 
and  in  right  behavior  towards  their  tribal  God,  was 
expressed  whatever  monotheistic  conceptions  they 
had  gained.  Every  exercise  of  self-control  brought 
with  it  a  sense  of  peace  and  joy,  and  Israel  was 
the  first  people,  who,  as  a  people,  gained  the  exper- 
ience. 


I04  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief, 


It  is  objected,  says  Matthew  Arnold,  that  the 
Jew's  God  was  not  the  Enduring  Power  that  makes 
for  righteousness,  but  only  their  tribal 
Amo?d.'^  God,  who  gave  them  the  victory  in  the 
battle  and  plagued  them  that  hated  them. 
But  how  then  comes  their  Hterature  to  be  full  of 
such  things  as  "  Show  me  thy  ways,  O  Eternal,  and 
teach  me  thy  paths ;  let  integrity  and  uprightness 
preserve  me,  for  I  put  my  trust  in  thee !  if  I  incline 
unto  wickedness  with  my  heart,  the  Eternal  will 
not  hear  me  !  "  Mr.  Arnold  thinks  that  the  desire 
for  goodness  could  not  come  from  the  mere  sense 
that  their  enemy  should  be  put  to  confusion,  and 
victory  be  given  to  Israel. 

To  the  objection  that  the  law  of  the  Lord  was  a 
traditional  mechanical  rule,  and  that  their  fear  of  the 
Lord  was  superstitious  dread  of  a  magnified  man, 
Mr.  Arnold  in  reply  asks,  '*  Why,  then,  are  they 
always  saying  :  *  Teach  me  thy  statutes.  Teach  me 
thy  way.  Show  me  the  way  that  I  shall  walk  in, 
Open  mine  eyes,  make  me  to  understand  wisdom 
secretly,'  if  all  the  law  they  were  thinking  of,  stood 
stark  and  written  before  their  eyes  already  ?  And 
what  could  they  mean  by :  '  I  will  love  thee  O  Eter- 
nal, my  strength.'  ?  Every  time  that  the  words  of 
contrition  or  humility  drop  from  the  lips  of  prophet 
or  psalmist,  Christianity  appears." 

The  eighth  century  prophets  appeal  to  the  historic 
consciousness  of  righteousness,  and  recall  the  people 
to  former  loyalty.  The  Pentateuch,  whether  of  pre- 
exilic  or  post-exilic  origin,  and  to  whatsoever  extent 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  105 


a  reconstruction  of  early  history  in  conformity  with 
the  views  of  later  time,  contains  a  solid  antique 
nucleus  of  fact,  made  up  of  the  words  of  Moses,  of 
hymn  and  story  by  his  successors  who  exalted  Je- 
hovah and  his  righteousness,  of  folk-lore  and  nar- 
rative rescued  by  the  Elohist  and  Jahvist  chroniclers 
from  oblivion.  This  strange  Hebrew  people  are 
seen  to  start  with  the  concept  of  righteousness,  to 
march  with  it  continually,  to  hold  it  fast  to  the  last 
amidst  all  backsHdings.  Glimpses  of  the  guidance 
of  God  and  of  the  value  of  righteousness,  are,  indeed, 
vouchsafed  to  other  branches  of  the  human  race, 
but  are  wavering  and  often  lost.  The  religious  de- 
velopment of  Israel  is  more  rapid,  because  the  people 
possess  and  cherish  a  greater  receptivity  of  the  Di- 
vine influence  which  is  active  in  all  history.  The 
Hebrew  race  must  ever  be  esteemed  as  the  race 
called  of  God  to  be  the  ethical  and  religious  teachers 
of  humanity. 

NOTE    I. 

"  It  is  just  here  that  archaic  law  renders  us  one  of  the 
greatest  of  its  services,  and  fills  up  a  gap  which  other- 
wise could  only  have  been  bridged  by  a  conjecture.  It 
is  full  in  all  its  provinces  of  the  clearest  indications  that 
society  in  primitive  times  was  not  what  it  is  assumed  to 
be  at  present — a  collection  of  individuals.  In  fact,  and 
in  the  view  of  the  men  who  composed  it,  it  was  an  aggre- 
gation of  families.  The  contrast  may  be  most  forcibly 
expressed  by  saying  that  the  unit  of  an  ancient  society  was 
the  family,  of  a  modern  society  the  individual." — Sir 
Henry  Maine  in  Ancient  Law^  page  126. 


1 06  Historic  Basis  of  Reli^  ious  Belief, 


Mr.  Bagehot,  in  Physics  and  Politics,  page  136,  remarks  : 
"  I  at  least  find  it  difficult  to  conceive  of  men,  at  all  like 
the  present  men,  unless  existing  in  something  like  fami- 
lies, that  is,  in  groups  avowedly  connected,  at  least  on 
the  mother's  side,  and  probably  always  with  a  vestige  of 
connection,  more  or  less,  on  the  father's  side  ;  and  unless 
these  groups  were,  like  many  animals  gregarious,  under 
a  leader  more  or  less  fixed,  it  is  almost  beyond  imagina- 
tion how  man,  as  we  know  man,  could  by  any  sort  of 
process  have  gained  this  step  in  civilization." 

Professor  John  Fiske,  Cosmic  Philosophy,  vol.  ii.,  page 
360,  remarks  :  "  Seeing  that  such  thinkers  as  Sir  Henry 
Maine  have  shown  that  the  primordial  unit  of  society,  by 
the  manifold  compounding  of  which  great  tribes  and 
nations  have  come  into  existence,  was  the  aboriginal 
family  group  with  its  nascently  ethical  relationships  be- 
tween the  members,  how  shall  we  explain  the  genesis  of 
these  family  groups,  which  have  nothing  strictly  answer- 
ing to  them,  either  among  non-human  primates  or  among 
other  gregarious  animals  ?  .  .  .  The  explanation,  as 
I  have  shown,  is  to  be  found  in  that  gradual  prolonga- 
tion of  the  period  of  infancy,  which  is  one  of  the  conse- 
quences, as  yet  but  partially  understood,  of  increasing 
intelligence.  .  .  .  What  we  have  here  especially  to  note 
amid  the  entanglement  of  all  these  causes  conspiring  to 
educe  humanity  from  animality  is  the  fact,  illustrated 
above,  that  this  prolongation  of  infancy  was  manifestly 
the  circumstance  which  knit  those  permanent  relation- 
ships, giving  rise  to  reciprocal  necessities  of  behavior 
which  distinguish  the  rudest  imaginable  family  group  of 
men  from  the  highest  imaginable  association  of  gregari- 
ous non-human  primates." 

In  this  line  of  inquiry  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  has 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  107 


never  yet  been  noticed  by  any  of  the  able  writers  who 
have  dealt  with  the  origin  of  the  human  race,  it  seems 
to  me  that  we  have  the  clew  to  the  solution  of  the  entire 
problem.  In  this  new  suggestion  as  to  the  causes  and 
the  effects  of  the  prolonged  infancy  of  man,  I  believe  we 
have  a  suggestion  as  fruitful  as  the  one  which  we  owe 
to  Mr.  Wallace.  And  the  most  beautiful  and  striking 
feature  in  this  treatment  of  the  problem  is  the  way  in 
which  all  the  suggestions  hitherto  made,  agree  in  helping 
us  to  the  solution. 

That  same  increase  in  representativeness,  which  is  at 
the  bottom  of  intellectual  progressiveness,  is  also  at 
the  bottom  of  sociality,  since  it  necessitates  that  prolong- 
ation of  infancy  to  which  the  genesis  of  sociality,  as 
distinguished  from  mere  gregariousness,  must  look  for 
its  explanation.  In  this  phenomenon  of  the  prolonging 
of  the  period  of  infancy  we  find  the  bond  of  connection 
between  the  problems  which  occupy  such  thinkers  as 
Mr.  Wallace  and  those  which  occupy  such  thinkers  as 
Sir  Henry  Maine.  AVe  bridge  the  gulf  which  seems,  on 
a  superficial  view,  for  ever  to  divide  the  human  from  the 
brute  world.  And  not  least,  in  the  grand  result,  is  the 
profound  meaning  which  is  given  to  the  phenomena  of 
helpless  babyhood.  From  of  old  we  have  heard  the 
monition,  "  Except  ye  be  as  babes  ye  cannot  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  The  latest  science  now  shows  us 
— though  in  a  very  different  sense  of  the  words — that, 
unless  we  had  been  as  babes,  the  ethical  phenomena 
which  give  all  its  significance  to  the  phrase  "  kingdom  of 
heaven  "would  have  been  non-existent  for  us.  Without 
the  circumstances  of  infancy  we  might  have  become 
formidable  among  animals  through  sheer  force  of  sharp- 
wittedness.      But,  except  for  these   circumstances,   we 


io8  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


should  never  have  comprehended  the  meaning  of  such 
phrases  as  "  self  sacrifice  "  or  *'  devotion."  The  phenom- 
ena of  social  life  would  have  been  omitted  from  the 
history  of  the  world,  and  with  them  the  phenomena  of 
ethics  and  religion." 

Professor  Drummond  in  his  Asce?jt  of  Man  has  availed 
himself  of  these  suggestions  ;  in  the  "  Struggle  for  the 
Life  of  Others,"  on  the  part  of  parents  for  their  offspring, 
he  finds  the  supplementary  factor  related  to  the  "  Struggle 
for  Self."  From  egoism  to  altruism  (nutrition  and  re- 
production) he  constructs  abridge  from  the  animal  to  the 
human  ethical  plane,  taking  account  of  the  feelings  of 
fatherhood  and  motherhood,  which  emerge  during  this 
prolonged  infancy  of  animals. 

Understanding  both  Professor  Fiske  and  Professor 
Drummond  as  not  deriving  the  moral  from  the  non-moral 
and  as  regarding  love  of  offspring  as  affording  conditions 
for  the  emergence  of  moral  affection  which  is  a  trans- 
cendent element — an  ethical  potentiality  in  the  whole 
process  of  life  from  the  first — grounded  in  the  Ethical 
Being  whose  love  is  enfolded  in  the  progress  of  all  life, 
it  may  be  accepted  as  a  happy  solution  of  the  problem 
of  continuity.  But  if  the  theory  is  meant  to  explain  the 
passage  from  the  non-moral  to  the  moral,  from  matter  to 
spirit,  the  gulf  remains  uncrossed.  Infancy  with  its  cir- 
cumstances, constitutes  the  condition  of  the  manifest- 
ation of  the  Divine  ethical  feeling. 

NOTE  II. 

"  The  assertion  now  often  heard  that  Religion  and 
Morality  stood  originally  in  no  connection  with  each 
other,  is  an  error  which  arises  from  a  false  way  of  put- 
ting  the  question.     Our  present  moral  convictions   are 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  109 


taken  as  a  standard,  and  it  is  asked  whether  the  oldest 
representations  of  the  gods  correspond  to  our  moral 
ideals,  and  whether  the  duties  required  at  the  first  by- 
religion  correspond  to  our  conception  of  duty. 

*'As,  of  course,  there  is  no  such  correspondence  in  these 
cases,  it  is  believed  that  any  original  connection  between 
morality  and  religion  must  be  denied.  In  maintaining  this 
view,  it  is  forgotton  that  the  primitive  morality  is  just  as 
different  from  our  morality  as  the  primitive  religion  is 
from  our  religion.  But  it  is  an  incontestable  fact  that  the 
primitive  morality  stands  in  very  close  connection  with 
the  primitive  religion,  and  indeed  that  the  beginnings  of 
all  social  customs  and  legal  ordinances  are  directly  de- 
rived from  religious  notions  and  ceremonial  practices. 

The  family  is  the  oldest  religious  community  and  only 
as  such  did  it  become  a  moral  fellowship.  The  worship 
of  the  house-gods  or  of  ancestral  spirits  was  the  ideal 
bond  which  connected  the  members  of  the  household 
into  a  lasting  fellowship  regulated  by  fixed  rules.     .     .     . 

"  The  oldest  laws  and  legislative  assemblies  were  re- 
ferred by  all  the  peoples  back  to  divine  revelation — a 
correct  reminiscence  of  the  fact  that  they  had  not 
arisen  from  arbitrary  invention  or  agreement,  but  were 
regarded  as  the  expression  of  religious  convictions, 
whose  involuntary  presuppositions  were  regulative  for 
the  formation  of  the  several  relations  of  life.  .  .  . 
There  was  therefore  found  from  the  beginning  a  relation- 
ship of  closest  reciprocity  between  the  religious  and  the 
moral ;  and  the  development  of  the  two  sides  proceeded 
for  a  long  time  pari  passu,  and  under  the  reciprocal  influ- 
ence of  the  one  upon  the  other."  {Philosophy  and 
Develop ffient  of  Religion,  Gifford  Lectures,  1894,  vol.  i., 
lecture  ii.     Professor  Otto  Pfleiderer.) 


no  Historic  Basis  of  Religions  Belief, 


NOTE    III. 

"  You  may  remember,"  writes  Professor  Max  Muller 
{^Anthropological  Religion^  p.  184),  *'  the  arguments  which 
I  produced  against  admitting  Animism  of  any  kind  as  a 
primitive  form  of  religious  thought.  You  cannot  have 
Animism  unless  you  have  first  an  anima.  In  order  to 
ascribe  an  anima,  a  soul,  to  anything,  be  it  a  stone,  a  rag 
(Fetichism),  a  sign-post  (Totemism),  a  tree  or  a  mountain 
(Animism)  man  must  first  have  gained  the  name  and 
concept  of  anima.  If,  as  we  are  told,  trust  in  a  fetich 
arose  always  from  the  '  doctrine  of  spirits  embodied  in  or 
attached  to,  or  conveying  influence  through  certain  ma- 
terial objects '  how  can  it  longer  be  doubted  that  fetich- 
ism in  all  its  forms,  presupposes  a  belief  in  spirits  ?  and 
that  what  has  really  to  be  accounted  for,  is  how  for  the 
first  time  a  spirit  was  named,  conceived,  and  believed  in, 
not  how  a  spirit  was  attributed  to  a  stone,  a  sign-post,  or 
a  tree." 

On  page  183,  Max  Muller  had  written  :  "You  may 
remember  how  it  was  the  chief  object  of  my  Lectures 
on  Physical  Religion  to  discover  the  faint  vestiges  of 
that  intellectual  progress  which  led  the  human  mind  to 
the  formation  of  a  name  and  concept  of  God.  We  saw 
how  that  progress  began  with  the  simplest  perceptions  of 
the  great  phenomena  of  Nature  and  then  advanced  step 
by  step  from  what  was  seen,  to  what  was  not  seen,  from 
what  was  finite,  to  what  was  not  finite,  till  at  last  all  that 
was  merely  phenomenal  in  the  ancient  names  was 
dropped,  and  there  remained  in  the  end  the  one  Infinite 
Agent,  still  called  by  the  old  names  but  purified  from  all 
material  dross." 

"  As  in  treating  of  Physical  Religion  it  was  our  chief 
object  to  watch  this  genesis  of  the  name  and  concept  of 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion,  1 1 1 


God  in  the  various  religions  and  languages  of  the 
ancient  world,  we  shall  now  have  to  do  the  same  for 
what  forms  the  necessary  counterpart  of  God  in  every 
religion,  namely,  the  human  soul,  or  whatever  other  name 
has  been  given  to  the  infinite,  and  therefore  the  im- 
mortal element  in  man.  The  name  of  that  immortal 
element  also  was  not  given  to  man  as  a  gratuitous  gift. 
It  had  to  be  gained,  like  the  name  of  God,  in  the  sweat 
of  his  face." 

Page  195.  "  And  here  we  can  watch  at  once  another 
step.  If  it  is  true  that  the  discovery  of  the  soul  was  made, 
not  so  much  during  life,  when  body  and  soul  were  almost 
indistinguishable,  but  at  the  time  of  death,  when  the 
breath  and  all  that  was  implied  by  that  word,  had  de- 
parted from  the  body,  the  question  could  hardly  be 
avoided,  whither  that  breath  had  gone.  .  .  .  To  unso- 
phisticated minds  the  thought  that  a  man  who  but  yester- 
day was,  like  ourselves,  eating,  drinking,working,  fighting, 
should  have  utterly  perished,  was  almost  impossible  to 
grasp.  It  was  far  more  natural  to  suppose  that  he  con- 
tinued to  exist  somewhere  and  somehow,  though  the 
where  and  the  how  were  unknown,  and  had  to  be  left  to 
the  imagination.  Imagination,  however  was  more  busy 
in  ages  of  comparative  ignorance  than  in  our  days,  and  if 
the  expression  had  once  been  used  "  our  father's  breath 
has  fled,"  that  would  soon  grow  into  the  expression  that 
his  spirit  had  fled,  that  he  himself  had  departed  from  his 
house,  and  had  gone  where  all  spirits  had  gone  before 
him,  to  a  world  of  spirits. 

"  This  is  a  very  general  outline  of  a  process  which  under 
varying  forms  we  can  trace  almost  everywhere  among 
uncivilised  and  among  civilised  peoples  and  which  has 
led  to  a  belief  first,  in  something  in  man  different  from 


112  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief, 


his  body,  call  it  breath,  or  spirit  or  soul  ;  and  secondly, 
to  a  belief  in  immortality,  and  to  a  large  number  of  acts 
intended  to  keep  up  the  memory  of  the  departed,  to 
secure  their  favor,  to  escape  their  anger,  till  in  the  end 
they  were  raised  to  an  exalted  position,  second  only  to 
that  of  the  immortal  gods." 

In  Hibbert  Lectures^  p.  77, 189 1,  Count  Goblet  D'Alviella 
traces  the  rise  of  the  worship  of  the  Manes  or  ancestral 
spirits.  "  The  Australian  Kurnai  who  was  asked  whether 
he  really  believed  that  \i\'s> yambo  could  "go  out"  while 
he  was  asleep,  immediately  answered:  *  It  must  be  so,  for 
when  I  sleep  I  go  to  distant  places.  I  see  distant 
people  ;  I  even  see  and  speak  with  those  who  are  dead.* 
We  have  but  to  open  the  first  treatise  on  Ethnography 
that  comes  to  hand,  and  we  shall  see  that  the  same 
reasoning  prevails  amongst  the  Negroes,  Kaffirs,  Poly- 
nesians Red-skins,  Greenlanders,  and  natives  of  South 
America.  .  .  .  Here  we  see  an  opposition  beginning 
to  shape  itself  between  the  body  and  what  we  have 
come  to  call  the  soul.  The  savage  is  doubtless  far  from 
regarding  his  interior  personality  as  an  immaterial  entity, 
conceived  by  force  of  abstraction,  and  reduced  to  a 
pure  psychic  force.  ...  It  will  be  a  reduction,  or 
rather  a  reflection  of  the  body,  vaguer,  paler,  half-effaced. 
This  is  what  has  been  called  the  double  identified  by 
many  peoples  with  the  shadow  produced  by  the  body, 
with  its  reflection  in  water,  with  its  image  seen  in  the 
pupil  of  the  eye,  and  so  forth.  The  sorcerers  of  Green- 
land describe  the  soul  as  a  pale  soft  thing,  without  nerves, 
without  bones,  without  flesh.  When  one  would  seize  it 
one  feels  nothing.     Is  not  this  exactly  the 

Animula,  vagula  blandula, 
Hospesque,  comesque,  corporis. 


Psychological  Genesis  of  Religion.  113 


under  the  traits  of  which  Hadrian  conceived  his  own 
spiritual  principle  ? " 

Prof.  D'  Alviella  on  page  81  asks  the  question  :  "  Did 
the  worship  of  the  dead  precede  or  follow  the  worship 
of  natural  objects  and  personified  phenomena  ?  It  is 
possible  that  in  certain  localities  the  worship  of  the  dead 
manifested  itself  the  first,  or  that  the  two  conceptions 
formed  themselves  pari  passu,  with  a  preponderance  of 
the  one  or  the  other.  It  seems  that  in  China  the  wor- 
ship of  ancestors  grafted  itself  upon  a  previous  nature- 
worship.  Amongst  the  Polynesians  it  has  been  success- 
fully established  that  the  worship  of  the  dead,  native  to 
the  eastern  archipelagos,  sporadically  overlaid  the  ancient 
mythological  nature-worship,  while  it  hardly  penetrated 
into  the  most  western  islands  of  Micronesia," 

"  All  I  maintain  is  that  neither  of  these  two  forms  of 
worship  necessarily  presupposes  the  other  ;  but  that  man, 
having  been  led  by  different  routes  to  personify  the  souls 
of  the  dead  on  the  one  hand,  and  natural  objects  and 
phenomena  on  the  other,  subsequently  attributed  to  both 
alike  the  character  of  mysterious  superhuman  beings. 
Let  us  add  this  must  have  taken  place  everywhere,  for 
there  is  not  a  people  on  earth  in  which  we  do  not  come 
upon  these  two  forms  of  belief  side  by  side  and  inter- 
mingled." 

That  the  root  of  Religion  is  found  in  Nature  worship, 
however,  must  be  admitted,  though  the  worship  of  Nature 
spirits  and  ancestor  spirits  may,  after  the  discovery  of 
soul,  have  existed  side  by  side. 

NOTE    IV. 

"  When  the  Gods  had  become  human,  there  was  no 
other  place  left  for  the  animals  with  whom  they  had  once 


1 14  Historic  Basis  of  Religious  Belief. 


been  so  intimately  connected.  The  evidence,  however, 
is  not  borne  by  art  alone.  The  written  texts  aver  that 
the  Gods  were  symbolized  by  animals,  like  the  Sun-God 
of  Kis,  whose  '  image '  or  symbol  was  the  eagle.  It  is 
these  symbols  which  appear  on  the  Babylonian  boundary 
stones,  where  in  the  infancy  of  Assyrian  research  they 
were  supposed  to  represent  the  Zodiacal  signs."* 

In  the  Totemistic  age  of  Accadian  faith  we  find  names 
given  to  the  constellations  of  the  Zodiac,  the  solar  bull,  the 
fish  of  Ea,  and  the  Scorpion.  The  Zodiacal  circle  seems 
to  have  been  invented  long  before  the  reign  of  Sargon, 

(3700  B.C.). 

*  A.  H.  Sayce,  Hibbert  Lectures^  p.  279. 


PART  II. 
IDEAL  BASES  OF  RELIGIOUS   BELIEF. 


"5 


^^^^ 

CHAPTER  I. 

METAPHYSICAL  GROUNDS  OF  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF. 

IN  this  second  part  of  the  treatise  upon  the  Grounds 
of  Religious  Belief,  we  appeal  no  longer  to  his- 
tory, but  to  the  existing  consciousness  of  man.  The 
demands  of  human  reason  can  find  their  explanation 
and  satisfaction,  in  the  postulate  of  a  Divine  Person- 
ality, and  in  that  alone.  The  Philosophy  of  Relig- 
ion attempts  to  show  that  the  reason  of  man,  in  order 
to  explain  the  constitution  and  Impulses  of  the  mind,  R 
requires  the  confirmation  of  its  rational,  ethical  and 
assthetical  ideals,  by  the  postulate  of  a  Unity  of  Being 
as  the  Ultimate  Ground  of  Nature  and  Mind. 

In  certain  moods  of  mind  most  persons  of  adult 
years,  and  even  children,  are  found  by  a  natural  im- 
pulse of  thought  to  become  genuine  meta-  Metaphysics 
physicians.  The  child  who  asks.  Who  a  necessity 
made  God  ?  has  already  pushed  the  ques- 
tion of  Causality  to  the  last  stage  of  metaphysical 
inquiry.  When,  also,  he  is  impelled  to  ask :  How 
do  I  know  that  what  is  red  in  color  for  me  is  red  for 

117 


1 1 8  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


others  also  ?  he  has  entered  the  school  of  Protagoras.* 
The  youth  who  indulges  in  reverie  may  dream  of 
scenes  and  incidents  in  an  ideal  realm,  oblivious  of 
passing  events,  and  with  a  vivid  fancy  may  create  a 
new  world  of  chivalry  or  art.  Roused  from  his  ab- 
straction, in  which  imaginary  scenes  have  seemed 
more  real  than  those  observed  in  the  rustic  life 
around  him,  he  is  lured  to  a  repetition  of  the  visits 
of  fancy  to  the  realms  of  fiction,  and  at  last  is  led  to 
ask  if  what  is  termed  real  life  is  not  after  all  most 
unreal,  and  if  reality  is  not  in  strictness  of  analysis 
a  subjective  feeling,  and  not  an  objective  fact.  Thus 
he  has  entered  the  school  of  Kant.  Cause,  Sub- 
stance, Motion,  Space,  and  Time  are  concepts  not 
devoid  of  strange  interest  for  even  the  child.  It 
would  be  easy  to  recall  the  curious  questionings  of 
thoughtful  childhood  in  which  each  of  these  catego- 
ries, in  one  or  another  form,  is  interrogated.  It  is 
for  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  that  these  medita- 
tions on  Reality  or  Being  are  found  to  have  a  vital 
interest,  and  through  the  answers  gained  to  our  ques- 
tionings in  the  stress  of  thought  experienced  by 
thinkers  from  Plato  to  Hegel,  to  become  the  friends 
and  advocates  of  Religion. 

Metaphysics,  we  are  reminded  by  Professor  Mo- 
merie,  is  a  term  applied  by  Andronicus  of  Rhodes 
to  the  treatises  which  Aristotle  wrote  to  supplement 
his  works  upon  physics  ;  these  treatises  were  spoken 
of  as  things  beyond  physics,  or  behind  physics. 

"  Let  us  have  done  with  metaphysics,"  exclaims 

*  Quicquid  recipitur,  recipitur  ad  modum  recipientis. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     1 19 


one  who  perhaps  is  incapable  of  prolonged  reflection, 
or  is  discouraged  because  man  must  search  for  truth, 
and  because  metaphysics  has  so  often  proved  to  be 
a  warfare  in  the  clouds.  This  aversion  to  metaphysics 
is  to  a  great  extent  the  product  of  mental  indolence. 
To  refuse  the  aid  of  metaphysics  is  to  refuse  to  think 
at  all  about  the  problems  of  life  and  destiny. 

But  metaphysical  thought  is  no  longer,  justly,  com- 
pelled to  vindicate  its  right  to  exist,  for  even  the 
votaries  of  physical  Science  are  now  forced 

1       TT1.  -r*       1-         T»/r.      1     Physical  Sci- 

to  mterrogate  the  Ultimate  Reality,  Mind,  ence  rests 
or  Spirit  which  is  seen  to  be  the  s^round    "po"  Meu- 

■^  ,  ,  °  physics. 

of  those   interactions   or  changes  in   the 

world  of  phenomena,  which  we  regiment  in  thought 

and  denominate  the  Order  of  Nature. 

Laws,  Causes,  Forces,  are  convenient  symbols.  We 
find  that  not  only  Matter  vanishes  into  these  as  we 
pursue  our  regressive  analysis,  but  farther,  these  ab- 
stractions from  Matter  do  not  constitute  the  ultimate 
reality  of  Being.  A  static  conception  of  the  world 
is  no  longer  possible  for  Science  ;  the  dynamic  con- 
ception has  succeeded  to  it,  and  forces  are  not  to  be 
conceived  as  less  than  spiritual  in  their  ultimate 
nature. 

Certain  instincts  of  human  reason  must  be  ac- 
counted for.  Reason  compels  us  to  hold  that  there 
is  an  Ultimate  Reality  the  ground  of  both  r^^^  robiem 
mind  and  matter,  and  that  this  Ultimate  of  Meta- 
Reality  is  a  unitary  Being  and  a  personal  physics. 
Being.  The  metaphysical  demands  of  reason  lead 
us  to  the  conclusion  that  such  a  Being  exists,  for 


1 20  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


his  existence  can  alone  account  for  and  satisfy  these 
demands.  The  argument  which  is  thus  metaphysical 
is  powerfully  reinforced  from  the  ethical  sphere  of 
reflection,  when  we  attempt  to  account  for  the  moral 
ideals  which  can  have  no  adequate  explanation  other 
than  that  found  in  the  existence  of  a  supreme  Moral 
Being,  the  source  and  fulfilment  of  them.  The  de- 
mands of  these  ethical  ideals  of  the  soul  of  man  will 
be  considered  in  another  chapter.  The  demands  of 
the  metaphysical  reason  will,  in  this  chapter,  claim 
our  attention. 

The  reality  of  Self,  is  the  point  of  departure  in 
order  to  arrive  at  the  Ultimate  Reality,  God.  Rather 
Self  is  the  ^^y  ^^  ^^^  'Cn'sX  through  the  intuition  of 
first  reality  the  reality  of  our  own  personality  we  have 
"°^"*  the  intuition  of  the    Divine   Personality. 

This  intuition  of  the  Divine  Personality  stands  or 
falls  with  the  intuition  of  our  own.*  A  process  of 
reasoning  seems  necessary  to  clearly  reveal  our  intui- 
tion of  the  Absolute  Self,  but  in  such  an  explication 
the  intuition  must  not  be  considered  other  or  less 
than  an  intuition.  The  study  of  Nature  and  Mind 
confirms,  but  does  not  establish  the  fact  of  this 
intuition. 

If  we  do  not  know  our  own  selfhood  as  real,  it  is 
in  vain  to  claim  any  knowledge  of  any  reality  be- 
yond or  outside  the  mind.  Hence  the  saying  that 
"  Personality  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  Meta- 
physics." The  state  of  consciousness  in  which  one 
thinks  of  himself  as  a  subject  actively  forming  con- 
♦  Note  I. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     1 2 : 


cepts  out  of  sensuous  perceptions,  or  as  an  undivided 
unity  holding  together  the  variety  of  the  inner  life 
or  as  an  Ego  or  combining  centre  unifying  the  mani- 
fold states  of  consciousness, — this  is  a  knowledge  of 
the  reahty  of  our  own  mind.  Without  this  know- 
ledge of  the  reality  of  one's  own  mind  to  start  with, 
all  knowledge,  of  anything  within  the  mind,  or  of 
other  minds,  or  of  the  external  world,  is  impossible, 
and  intelligence  is  a  blank  and  Science  a  dream. 
There  must  be  a  knower  that  anything  may  be 
known,  a  perceiver  that  perception  may  be  possible, 
and  that  which  is  known  or  perceived  cannot  be  an 
illusion  but  a  reality,  something  that  is.  We  cannot 
get  under  way  to  know  that  w^hich  is  outside  the 
mind,  the  external  world  for  example,  or  the  Ulti- 
mate Being  who  is  the  Ground  of  the  world,  without 
assuming  that  we  know  our  own  minds  to  be  real, 
that  our  reason  requires  no  validation  ;  in  other 
words,  that  our  subjective  necessities  of  thought  are 
strictly  related  to  objective  realities.  Neither  Phi- 
losophy nor  Science  can  get  under  way,  if  the  rela- 
tion of  subject  and  object  is  an  illusion,  if  we  cannot 
know,  without  being  able  to  explain  how,  something 
that  is. 

It  was  the  question.  Can  we  know  any  reality,  or 
is  our  knowledge  only  a  kaleidoscopic  change  of  our 
subjective  impressions?  which  Kant  attempted  to 
answer.  Philosophy  since  his  day,  thankful  that  he 
raised  the  question,  has  determined  that  reality  can 
be  known,  as  object  is  related  to  subject,  and  that 
self-consciousness  is  but  the  central  subject  regard- 


1 22  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief. 


ing  itself  as  object,  thus  facing  its  own  reality. 
How  the  subject  knows  the  object  we  may  not  ex- 
plain, but  the  fact  itself  is  certain,  and  the  mind  in 
self-consciousness  cognizes  its  own  reality.  We  may 
here  recall  the  words,  of  Jackson  :  *'  Scepticism  can 
only  destroy  the  validity  of  thought  by  assuming 
that  the  laws  of  thought  are  valid.  It  must  use  rea- 
son to  disprove  the  truth  of  reason."  * 

Thus  if  any  knowledge  is  possible  and  we  are  not 
chimeras  and  the  world  is  not  a  chimera,  we  know 
ourselves  as  subjects  or  centres  of  the  states  of  our 
consciousness.  Mind  thus  confronts  its  own  real- 
ity as  both  subject  and  object.  In  this  microcosm 
man  there  is  a  personal  soul,  or  unitary  reality,  able 
to  distinguish  its  states,  from  itself  as  the  unity 
which  binds  them  together.  This  Ego,  or  subject, 
not  only  perceives  these  phenomena  of  mental  life, 
but  in  its  freedom  at  times  originates  them  and 
changes  them.  Thus  the  traits  of  personality  are 
self-consciousness  and  self-determination. 

That  the  soul  is  a  unity  we  do  not,  however,  infer, 
because  we  are  manifested  to  ourselves  as  unity ; 
Unity  of  but  we  are  confident  of  the  undivided 
the  Soul.  nature  of  our  being,  from  the  fact  that 
anything  can  appear  to  us  at  all ;  in  other  words, 
that  there  is  a  self  to  which  we  can  appear.  The 
so-called  faculties  of  the  soul,  namely,  ideation,  feel- 
ing, and  will,  are  indeed  a  trinity  of  capacities,  but 
a  trinity  that  is  only  a  unity  in  the  being  of  the 

*  In  order  to  deny  the  existence  of  mind  we  must  first  possess  a 
mind. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     123 


soul.  In  our  introspection,  going  over  our  mental 
states,  and  observing  this  plurality  of  modes  of 
psychic  life,  we  are  forced  to  find  also  a  unity  of  be- 
ing as  fundamental  to  the  soul.  Thus  the  certainty 
of  the  soul,  as  a  unitary  reality,  is  a  gradually  in- 
creasing ascertainment,  through  acts  of  self-conscious 
knowledge.  If  there  is  an  activity  of  knowledge, 
the  knower  must  really  exist  before  he  can  actively 
know.  This  psychical  unity  is  not  a  stiff  and  un- 
varying unity,  but  in  every  act  of  self-knowledge 
this  soul  or  subject  becomes  one,  and  recognizes 
itself  as  unity.  Every  unity  impHes  a  plurality  or 
manifold,  and  in  every  plurality  is  implicated  a 
fundamental  unity. 

The  Soul,  Subject,  or  Ego,  does  not  gaze  directly 
at  its  unitary  reality  ;  it  knows  itself  in  its  acts  of 
knowledge,  in  progressive  life,  amidst  the  manifold 
experience  of  consciousness,  f 

Mysterious  as  is  the  origin  of  self,  all  activities  of 
thought,  feehng,  and  will  are  inevitably  to  be  re- 
ferred to  this  first  of  all  realities.  To  speak  of 
my  thoughts,  my  sensations,  my  acts  of  willing,  is  to 
presuppose  the  self  as  reality,  the  basis  of  all  know- 
ledge. But  this  experiencing  self,  the  combining 
centre  of  this  variety  of  states,  does  not  represent 
the  entire  capacity  of  self.  The  phenomenal  self  is 
the  actual,  but  not  the  ideal  self  we  are  to  become, 
in  our  upward  progress  towards  the  Divine  Self. 
Our  present  self  seems  to  us  at  times  to  fall  short 
of  representing  the  whole  reality  of  our  nature. 
\  Note  II. 


1 24  Ideal  Bases  of  Relig  ious  Belief, 


There  hovers  beyond  us  a  transcendental  self  or  per- 
sonality, an  ideal  Ego,  towards  which  we  are  striv- 
ing, a  Person  we  may  and  ought  to  become. 

The  key  then  to  the  metaphysical  position,  the 
Ilium  which  cannot  be  surrendered  nor  taken,  is  the 
Personam  ^nity  of  our  personality.  It  would  seem 
not  a  bundle  to  be  no  longcr  necessary  to  contend  for 
of  Sensations,  ^j^^^  Unity.  Personality  is  not  to  be  ex- 
plained as  a  bundle  of  sensations  or  impressions,  or 
a  bundled  manifold  of  perceptions,  for  the  question 
returns,  whose  sensations,  whose  impressions  or  per- 
ceptions are  they?  Thus  the  Ego  is  constantly 
assumed  as  the  unitary  subject.  "  In  order,"  says 
Mr.  Bain,  "  to  produce  any  effect  on  the  senses  there 
must  be  a  change,  and  everything  in  the  nature  of 
change  thrills  through  the  brain  with  a  kind  of  sur- 
prise." But  we  may  ask.  Who  is  surprised,  and  who 
feels  the  thrill,  if  not  the  ego  or  subject  ? 

The  changes  in  the  molecules  of  brain  are  then 
only  the  occasions  of  thrill  or  surprise  for  the  per- 
ceiving subject.  It  may  be  conceded  that  not  in 
every  mental  state,  is  implicated  a  knowledge  of  self, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  every  act  of  know- 
ing presupposes  a  subject  who  cognizes  and  feels  it. 
The  continuity  of  consciousness  is  a  dream  without 
a  central  subject,  or  self,  who  remains  after  percep- 
tions have  come  and  vanished.  There  can  be  no 
memory,  unless  there  is  a  subject  to  perform  the  act 
of  remembering.  A  series  of  events  can  have  no 
consciousness  of  itself  as  a  series;  Mr.  Picton  writes, 
*'  when  a  schoolmaster  canes  a  row  of  boys  one  after 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     1 2  5 


another  they  have  similar  feelings  but  no  continuous 
feeling.  In  order  to  the  existence  of  the  latter  the 
strokes  must  be  given  successively  to  one  boy." 

This  identification  with,  or  dissolution  of,  the  self 
into  the  phenomena  of  sensation,  is  the  analogue  of 
the  attempt  in  discussions  of  ethics  to  escape  the 
fact  of  freedom  and  moral  obligation  by  identifying 
them  with  character,  when  it  is  forgotten  that  there 
must  be  a  self  to  have  a  character.  Character  is 
without  ethical  significance  when,  as  in  insanity,  the 
unity  of  consciousness  is  lost,  when  sensations  or 
perceptions  flit  like  storm  clouds  across  the  mind's 
firmament,  there  being  no  central  power  to  arrange 
them  into  rational  relations.  As  Professor  James 
remarks  '*  we  can  no  more  have  a  stream  of  thought 
without  a  thinker,  than  a  thinker  without  thought." 
It  is  not  simple  consciousness  that  is  the  elementary 
fact,  but  the  mind  which  is  conscious. 

It  is  around  the  personality  of  man  that  the  fire 
rages  hottest.  But  Psychology  without  a  soul  would 
seem  to  have  no  function.  To  endow  molecules  of 
matter  with  the  capacities  of  a  subject  of  all  psychi- 
cal phenomena,  and  with  the  power  to  construct  a 
soul  by  whose  activities  alone  matter  can  be  known, 
is  to  suppose  the  unconscious  first  making  itself  con- 
scious, in  order  to  know  its  unconsciousness.  That 
the  simplest  fact  of  consciousness  will  ever  be  ex- 
plained in  terms  of  matter,  is  a  hope  which  the  most 
sanguine  believer  in  the  potencies  of  matter  will  have 
to  surrender.  That  changes  in  states  of  conscious- 
ness are  correlated  to  changes  in  the  substance  of 


1 26  Ideal  Bases  of  Relig  ious  Belief. 


the  brain,  follow,  from  the  union  of  soul  and  body, 
but  as  has  been  many  times  affirmed,  the  passage 
from  physics  of  the  brain  to  the  facts  of  conscious- 
ness is  inconceivable.  * 

The  attack  upon  personality  has  failed,  and  with 
this  direct  knowledge  of  the  reality  of  the  finite  self, 
is  implicated  the  reality  of  the  Absolute  self.  Man 
as  self-conscious  and  self-determining,  possessing  rea- 
son and  agency,  feels  himself  to  be  dependent  upon 
a  Being  who  cannot  be  inferior  to  him  in  his  person- 
ahty.  The  higher  cannot  come  from  the  lower.  But 
this  intuition  of  the  personaHty  of  the  Absolute  is 
still  farther  explicated  by  metaphysical  reasoning 
concerning  extra-mental  reality. 

From  the  reality  of  self  in  the  act  of  knowledge 
we  arrive  at  the  reality  of  Nature  and  of  other  beings. 
The  World  as  Knowing  myself  to  be  an  agent,  I  find  my 
reality.  "  spontaneity  disputed  "  by  an  Agency 
other  than  Self,  in  the  external  realm.  Self  and 
an  Other-than-Self  reciprocally  limit  each  other's 
agency,  as  when  the  traveller  pushes  his  way  against 
a  strong  wind,  or  strives  to  lift  a  heavy  weight.  From 
exerting  my  own  causal  agency  or  will  the  most 
central,  direct,  and  "intimate  fact  of  my  life,"  I 
find  myself  face  to  face  with  a  Causality  in  the  world 
around  me,  a  Causality  of  the  same  kind  as  my  own, 
since  agencies  or  powers  must  be  homogeneous  to 
limit  each  other,  f 

With  this  category  of  Causality  derived  from  the 
intuition  of  Self  we  enter  the  external  world  to  find 

*  Note  III.  f  Note  IV. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     127 


there  a  Causal  Will,  of  like  nature  with  our  own,  im- 
manent in  the  world,  its  presence  revealing  itself  at 
one  time  as  potential,  at  another  as  kinetic  energy, 
to  use  the  terms  of  the  science  of  Nature. 

Since  this  dynamical  antithesis  of  the  Cause  within 
and  the  Cause  without,  that  is,  of  the  Self  and  the 
Other-than-Self,  cannot  exist  if  they  are  hetero- 
geneous, we  are  justified  in  attributing  to  the  causal 
principle  of  Nature  volitions  like  our  own,  powers  of 
initiation,  selection,  and  control.  Thus,  as  we  know 
our  own  self  or  will  to  be  a  reality,  we  are  forced 
to  accept  our  knowledge  of  the  world  as  valid,  and 
to  know  the  World  is  to  establish  its  reality,  for 
knowledge  and  reality  are  inseparable,  since  we  can- 
not know  anything  of  which  we  cannot  affirm  that  it 
is.  To  know  is  to  know  something  that  is.  Mr. 
Browning's  idealism  is  excessive.  He  sets  forth  the 
subjective  side  of  knowledge  as  an  act,  but  loses 
sight  of  the  objective  element  which  answers  to  it 
in  the  fine  passage  in  Paracelsus : 

"  There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all 
Where  truth  abides  in  fulness  ;  and  to  know 
Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  splendor  may  escape, 
Than  in  effecting  entrance  for  a  light 
Supposed  to  be  without." 

The  mind  does  not  make  nature ;  it  knows  it,  be- 
cause it  has  an  objective  reality. 

Here  we  are  forced  to  consider  what  the  reality  of 
the  world  is,  in  the  ultimate  analysis  of  it.  Is  the 
realism  of  Nature  a  solid — that  is,  a  physical  realism  ? 


128  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  solidity  of  matter  vanishes  before  our  analysis, 
and  the  term  matter  is  seen  to  be  an  abstraction, 
What  is  the  ^^^  must  be  metaphysically  interpreted, 
world's  re-  The  Statical  conception  of  Nature  yields 
^  **^  to  the  dynamical  conception,  and  matter 

can  be  thought  of  only  as  a  function  of  force,  and 
force  can  be  conceived  only  as  spiritual.  The  realism 
of  Nature  is  then  not  a  physical,  but  an  ideal  real- 
ism. Energy  or  Force  is  the  reality  or  life  of  the 
Universe  and  as  metaphysical  reasoning  shows  that 
force  or  energy  to  be  a  fact  of  mind,  the  conclusion 
is  that  the  forces  which  animate  Nature  are  them- 
selves spiritual  in  ultimate  analysis.  That  the  power 
in  nature  and  in  mind  is  the  same  in  its  essence,  if 
granted,  does  not,  however,  reveal  what  its  essence  is. 

Inductive  science,  emphasizing  the  dynamical 
properties  of  matter,  conducts  us  to  the  conception 
of  matter  as  force,  and  metaphysics,  conceiving  force 
or  causation  by  the  analogy  of  our  own  mental  ac- 
tivity, reveals  its  nature  as  spiritual. 

While  then  mental  action  can  be  distinguished 
from  physical  action,  and  Mind  seems  to  stand  in 
antithetic  relation  to  the  World  of  matter,  science 
has  arrived  at  the  truth  that  the  action  of  mind 
differs  from  the  action  of  matter  only  "  as  the  con- 
scious manifestation  of  force  differs  from  its  un- 
conscious manifestation." 

As  in  the  sphere  of  mind  the  conception  of  en- 
ergy is  derived  from  the  action  of  will,  in  similar 
wise  the  energies  of  Nature  must  have  their  ground 
in  an  immanent  Will.     The  Cosmos  is  order,  and  the 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     129 


unconscious  forces  are  the  modes  of  activity  of  a 
conscious  Ground,  an  Intelligent  Will,  and  the  pro- 
cess of  the  world  is  the  unfolding  of  an  Idea.  That 
the  Intelligent  Will  immanent  in  Nature  is  a  holy- 
Will  may  be  shown  hereafter,  when  the  Ethical 
Grounds  of  religious  belief  shall  be  considered. 

As  we  were  obliged  to  accept  first  the  reality  of 
self  and  then  the  unity  of  self,  so  the  conclusion 
that  the  reality  of  the  world  is  found  in  ^^  ^j^^  reality 
Will  immanent  in  it,  must  be  advanced  of  the  world 
to  the  further  conclusion  that  this  Will  is 
in  its  nature  one.  "Through  the  simply  intuitive 
fancy  of  men  and  nations,"  says  Dr.  Martineau, 
"  Hfe  in  its  changes  is  httle  less  than  a  colloquy  be- 
tween human  and  superhuman  Wills."  Among 
primitive  men  in  face  of  Nature,  countless  agencies, 
ancestral  and  nature  Spirits,  were  worshipped  as 
arbiters  of  man's  life  and  destiny.  Slowly  did  man 
in  his  advancing  culture  liberate  himself  from  the 
belief  that  many  wills  were  exerting  their  power 
above  him.  Suspicions  of  a  unitary  Will  or  Agency, 
even  in  his  lowest  intellectual  conditions,  were  not 
absent  from  the  consciousness  of  primitive  man. 
But  the  glimpse  of  such  a  unity  was  but  transient ; 
the  powers  of  reflection  soon  yielded  to  fatigue,  and 
the  easier  conceptions  of  polytheism  held  their  sway. 
As  the  philosophy  of  Nature  made  progress,  the 
monistic  impulse  gathered  strength  and  the  study 
of  the  Cosmos  revealed  its  unity,  and  with  that 
unity  there  arrived  the  conception  of  the  One  Will 
above  the  world. 


1 30  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  sciences  of  Nature  are  ever  running  their 
roots  into  each  other's  domains.  The  students  of 
Nature  regard  their  particular  sciences  as  part  of  a 
unitary  science.  The  belief  in  the  uni- 
wm.  °**^°  versal  reign  of  Law  attests  this  pro- 
found conviction,  that  the  Cosmos  is  one. 
Hence  the  friendly  support  the  sciences  afford  to 
each  other,  the  esprit  du  corps  which  prevails,  the 
sublime  confidence  men  of  science  cherish  that  they 
are  engaged  in  rearing  a  unitary  edifice  of  know- 
ledge, as  masons,  sculptors,  and  painters  ally  their 
powers  in  the  construction  of  some  cathedral.  This 
unity  is  a  presupposition,  not  of  philosophy  alone 
but  of  science  as  well,  the  *  high  belvedere '  always 
to  be  ascended,  the  inspiration  to  achievement  of 
those  who  are  busy  in  constructing  the  temple  of 
knowledge  of  Nature.  This  rapprocheinent  of  the 
sciences  reveals  the  monistic  impulse,  and  the  efforts 
of  experimental  psychology  to  bridge  the  gulf  be- 
tween brain-action  and  thought  also  attest  it. 

The  mysterious  force  called  Gravitation,  which 
binds  our  planet  to  the  solar  system,  and  that  system 
Gravitation  as  ^^  othcrs  in  spacc,  is  of  itsclf  an  evidence 
unitary  force  of  Naturc's  Unity.  The  word  Universe  is 
in  Nature.  ^  magazine  of  suggestion.  This  inscruta- 
ble force  not  only  holds  the  worlds  in  their  orbits, 
but  poises  the  flower  on  its  stalk.  The  body  of  man 
achieves  its  conquests  by  its  aid,  and  in  all  the  me- 
chanical triumphs  of  genius  this  force  is  the  great 
factor,  and  the  whole  order  is  by  it  conditioned. 
There   is   also  the  ''  great  Pentarchy "  of  Physical 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     1 3 1 


forces,  Light,  Heat,  Magnetism,  Electricity,  and 
Chemical  Affinity.  Obscure  as  are  their  relations 
to  each  other — and  it  may  be  inaccurate  to  speak 
of  their  transmutation — they  yet  suggest  unmis- 
takably a  unity  of  co-ordination.  The  correlation 
of  forces  is  a  discovery  of  modern  science,  and  the 
"great  cycle  of  Forces  "  suggests  a  unity  of  origin. 
To  postulate  an  immanent  unitary  Will, — in  dis- 
tinction from  the  many  Wills  supposed  by  man  in 
his  primitive  stages  of  culture  to  be  operating  the 
world's  forces, — is  a  logical  necessity  of  the  mind. 

Man  also,  through  his  organic  life,  is  a  part  of  the 
unity  of  Nature.  His  body  is  indeed  a  mechanism, 
but  a  mechanism  which  is  the  vassal  of  his  mind. 
No  physiology  of  the  knife  enables  us  to  make  the 
passage  from  the  spatial  to  the  non-spatial,  to  explain 
thought  in  terms  of  matter,  to  place  our  consciousness 
under  the  sway  of  the  Law  of  persistence  of  Force. 

With  the  advance,  then,  of  the  sciences  of  Nature 
we  find  pluralistic  conceptions  of  the  world,  passing 
into  monistic,  if  not  always  theistic,  con-  sciences  of 
ceptions.  The  unity  of  the  world  which  Nature, 
science  feels  compelled  to  postulate  as  an  ™°"*^  **^' 
explanation  of  the  relations  of  matter  is  not,  how- 
ever, a  static,  but  a  variable  unity. 

All  changes  are  possible  only  on  the  hypothesis 
that  there  is  a  Ground  Reality  or  Will  which  ex- 
plains all  Cosmic  interactions,  by  changes  unity  of 
in  its  own  states,  itself  remaining  a  Unit-  cosmic 

ary  Being.  We  observe  certain  conse-  *"  ^'^^'^  ^°"^* 
quences  flowing  from  certain  antecedents  in  Nature, 


1 32  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


not  in  an  accidental  but  in  a  definite  order.  With 
the  principle  of  Causality  derived  from  our  self- 
consciousness,  we  enter  the  objective  realm  of  Na- 
ture, confident  that  our  minds  do  not  deceive  us ; 
that  there  is  an  objective  order  answering  to  our  sub- 
jective necessities  of  thought ;  that  while  our  know- 
ledge is  an  act  of  the  mind,  the  content  of  our 
knowledge  has  an  objective  validity ;  that  the  outer 
world  does  not  melt  into  a  dream  of  subjective  fan- 
tasy, and  that  science  has  no  basis  if,  with  the  ex- 
treme idealist,  the  objective  facts  it  observes  are 
wholly  interior,  and  have  no  reahty  outside  the  mind. 

Thus  the  massive  edifice  of  knowledge  erected  by 
science  becomes  with  the  passage  of  each  year  more 
majestic,  and  students  of  Nature,  even  the  most 
vigorous  realists,  accept  the  facts  of  the  world  as  in 
objective  relation  to  our  subjective  intelligence. 
The  metaphysic  impulse  is  irresistible,  to  search  for 
the  ultimate  unitary  Will  or  Ground  of  these  inter- 
actions in  Nature  which  occur  in  definite  succes- 
sions. We  cannot  rest  with  the  penurious  concept 
of  Law,  for  on  reflection  we  find  that  Law  is  but 
a  modus  agendi  of  the  unitary  Agent  whose  mode 
of  behavior  we  study  scientifically. 

How,  then,  do  these  interactions  of  things  come 
about  ?  Is  it  by  impacts  merely  upon  each  other, 
How  do  these  ^^  whcn  one  ball  is  struck  by  another,  or 
Cosmic  inter-  do  things  aloof  from  each   other  shoot 

actions  occur  ?  1.      •  •    n  •    i. 

some  mysterious  mfiuence  across  mter- 
vening  space,  and  thus  give  rise  to  the  changes  we 
observe  in  Nature  ?     Physical  science  cannot  accept 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,    133 


the  theory  of  impact,  and  action  across  an  interval 
of  space  is  no  explanation,  for  interaction  implies  a 
mutual  dependence  or  existence  in  relations.  If 
things  are  independent  of  mutual  relations — that  is, 
each  thing  is  sufficient  for  itself — then  no  causal 
connection  is  conceivable,  no  transitive  influence  is 
possible  or  necessary.  We  must,  then,  regard  things 
as  existing  in  mutual  interdependence.  Observing, 
then,  one  event  as  conditioning  the  occurrence  of 
another,  we  can  find  no  explanation  other  than  that 
of  an  Immanent  Ground  or  Being,  a  Unitary  Reality 
or  Will,  operating  these  changes  in  Nature. 

It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  the  system  of  interactions 
is  self-explaining,  for  a  system  is  made  up  of  its  in- 
teracting units,  and  merely  adding  them  together  is 
not  to  give  the  reason  of  their  relation. 

The  basal  Reality  is,  then.  Unity,  and  we  are 
again  forced  to  seek  in  Ultimate  Being  or  Unitary 
Will  the  explanation  of  the  existence  of  the  system 
itself.  We  may,  therefore,  think  of  things  as  all- 
dependent  upon  this  Unity,  as  transcendent  Being 
apart  from  them  and  outside  the  world,  influencing 
their  interactions,  or  we  may  think  of  things  as  de- 
pendent upon  Absolute  Being  resident  in  them, 
while  they  are  expressions  of  it.*  It  seems  impos- 
sible to  hold  the  former  view,  which  is  Deistic,  and 
affords  no  solution  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  things. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Immanence  of  Will  affords  the 
best  explanation  of  the  world. 

If  we  have  reached  in  the  argument  the  truth  of  a 
*  Note  V. 


,^ 


34  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


personal  Will  as  the  Source  of  all  being,  it  would 
Will  not  un-  Seem  unnecessary  to  contend  that  it  is 
conscious,  but  intelligent.  I  can  only  conceive  of  Will 
intelligent.  ^^  directed  by  intelligence,  and  as  having 
purpose  which  is  meaningless  unless  it  is  intelligent. 
The  world  is  an  enigma  not  to  be  resolved,  if  it  has  not 
its  ground  in  self-existing  and  self-determining  Will. 
That  it  is  intelligent,  the  system  of  things  compels 
us  to  believe,  that  we  may  account  for  the  order  of 
the  universe.  Schopenhauer  finds  an  Absolute 
Ground  of  all  phenomena,  both  subject  and  object, 
man  and  nature,  but  is  content  with  spelling  it  with 
a  capital  letter,  emptying  it  of  thought.  In  the 
words  of  Martineau  "  his  Will  has  no  tincture  of 
thought,  and  does  not  know  what  it  would  be  at, — 
which  seems  just  to  unsay  its  volitional  nature." 
There  seems  to  be  no  road  out  to  any  conclusion 
with  such  a  usage  of  words. 

"  Gewohnlich  glaubt  der  Mensch  er  nun  Worte  hort 
Es  miisse  sich  dabei  doch  auch  was  denken  lassen.* 

says  Goethe. 

Hartman  concedes  intelligence  to  this  Will,  but  it 
is  an  unconscious  intelligence,  whatever  that  may 
mean.  But  an  intelligent  Will  without  conscious- 
ness, would  seem  an  impossible  conception.  From 
both  these  thinkers  is  wrung  the  concession  that  a 
unitary  Will,  a  Power,  which  thinks  and  establishes 
the  order  of  Nature,  must  be  presupposed  in  order 

*  Men  usually  believe  when  they  hear  words  that  there  must  be 
some  thought  in  them. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     135 


to  construct  any  rational  philosophy  of  Nature.  A 
Power  which  wills  and  purposes  can  be  nothing  less 
than  conscious,  and  we  have,  after  obstinate  warfare, 
concessions  made  by  these  writers  which  cause  their 
imposing  systems  of  thought  to  collapse  and  to  for- 
feit the  respect  of  Philosophy.  But  the  intuition  of 
a  supreme  intelligent  Will  may  be  farther  explicated 
by  reflecting  upon  the  signs  of  purpose  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  Nature. 

With  every  enlargement  of  the  conception  of  sys- 
tem gained  in  the  alliance  of  the  sciences  we  have 
seen  that  a  Unitary  Will  has  become 
more  and  more  an  indispensable  postu-  ^^^Nature" 
late,  and  the  more  cogent  becomes  also 
the  demand  for  Intelligence,  for  assuredly  it  is 
order,  not  chaos,  that  attests  its  presence.  It 
is  a  surprise  in  the  history  of  science,  that  the 
conception  of  an  ordered  relation  or  Cosmos  has 
been  used  to  expel  purpose  from  Nature,  as  if  the 
Creator  would  more  clearly  reveal  his  presence  and 
agency  by  leaving  things  to  chance  and  disorder. 
It  is  a  hardship  to  find,  that  at  one  time  orderly 
system  is  deemed  incompatible  with  the  presence  of 
purpose,  and,  at  another,  accidental  relation  is 
deemed  to  be  equally  incompatible  with  it. 

The  Unity  of  Nature  is  inconceivable  otherwise 
than  as  a  purpose  of  Goodness  being  realized, 
though  Pessimism  may  deny  the  Goodness  and  con- 
cede the  purpose. 

Leibniz,   perhaps   the  founder*   of  the   modern 

*  Note  VI. 


1 36  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


doctrine  of  Evolution,  with  his  law  of  continuity, 
his  theory  of  insensible  perceptions,  and  his  prin- 
ciple of  the  infinitely  little,  has  said,  "  The  present 
is  big  with  the  future,"  thus  implicating  finality, 
contending  that  all  internal  changes  of  substances 
were  controlled  by  the  Idea  to  be  realized. 

Natural  Selection  is  clearly  seen  to  be  not  a  cause, 
but  an  instrument  used  by  Supreme  Agency.  The 
Natural  Se-  "  survival  of  the  fittest "  is  inconceivable 
lection,  without  the   pre-existence  of   the  fittest 

means,  not  ^ 

cause.  who  survivc.     The  world  is  not  governed 

by  laws,  but  in  accordance  with  laws,  or  if  we  drop 
the  term  laws,  the  order  of  the  world  is  but  the 
uniform  succession  of  changes  which  accord  with 
changes  in  the  states  of  Divine  Consciousness,  and 
is  the  realization  of  the  Idea.  If  the  agents  in  Na- 
ture are  devoid  of  inteUigence,  their  method  of 
action  betrays  the  direction  of  Intelligence.  The 
purposive  idea  is  a  ghost  of  Banquo  at  every  feast 
of  science,  and  insists  upon  taking  its  seat  at  the 
board. 

Thus  Haeckel  in  his  work,  the  object  of  which  is 
to  dispense  with  finality  in  Nature,  defines  an  organ- 
ism as  one  in  which  ''  the  various  parts 
work  together  for  the  purpose  of  produc- 
ing the  phenomena  of  life,"  and  Hartman,  who  con- 
tends that  the  world  is  the  outcome  of  unconscious- 
ness, speaks  of  the  **  wisdom  of  the  Unconscious," 
of  the  "mechanical  contrivances  It  employs,"  of 
"  Its  direct  activity  in  bringing  about  complete 
adaptation  to  the   pecuhar  nature  of  the  case,"  of 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     137 


"  Its  incursions  into  the  human  brain,  which  deter- 
mine and  guide  the  course  of  history  in  all  depart- 
ments of  civilization,  in  the  direction  of  the  goal 
intended  by  the  Unconscious."  How  much  Hart- 
man  is  forced  to  concede,  is  pointed  out  by  Dr. 
Martineau. 

*'  Hartman,  in  his  correction  of  Schopenhauer,  de- 
clares it  impossible  to  reconcile  the  evident  pursuit 
of  ends  in  the  Universe  with  any  rnere  pj^j.^^^^^  ^^^^j 
irrational  Will."  Hartman  seems  to  pass  schopen- 
under  the  yoke  when  he  grants  that  the 
inner  Principle  of  the  World  *'  so  far  from  being  un- 
intelligent and  blind,  is  an  intuitive  and  clairvoyant 
wisdom  determining  the  contents  and  directing  the 
processes  of  nature  "  ;  it  is  ''  the  unity  of  intelligence 
and  will,"  it  is  "  in  an  eminent  sense  individual." 
How  then  Hartman  can  confront  his  own  statement 
and  still  affirm  this  Intelligence  and  Will  to  be  un- 
conscious, is,  indeed,  an  enigma. 

It  is  a  significant  remark  of  Professor  Huxley  * 
that  the  course  of  evolution  is  best  described  as  a 
"materialized  logical  process.  The  doctrine  of 
chance  f  has,  therefore,  no  standing  in  the  court  of 
science,  nor  can  the  theory  of  Evolution  apart  from 
an  Intelligent  Ground  arouse  any  longer  any  intel- 
lectual interest.  By  whatever  names  the  Ground  of 
the  world  may  be  called,  spelled  in  large  letters, 
the  Unknowable  Will  of  Schopenhauer  or  the  Un- 
conscious of  Hartman,  there  are  to  be  found  in  all 

*  Nineteenth  Century^  February^  1888, 
f  Note  VII. 


138  Ideal  Bases  of  Relig  ious  Belief, 


the  theories  based  upon  them  vigorous  implications 
of  intelligence  and  purpose. 

It  has  been  contended,  however,  that  finality  is 
a  conception  in  which  intention  is  not  necessarily 
Objection  of  implicated.  By  Schopenhauer,  for  exam- 
schopen-  pie,  finality  has  been  declared  to  be  sub- 
jective, or  the  projection  of  our  way  of 
looking  at  things,  our  own  mental  order,  into  the 
objective  realm.  In  his  view,  finality  exists  y<?r  our 
intelligence,  and  it  does  not  follow  that  it  exists  by 
intelligence,  and  this  is  to  say,  that  there  is  in  the 
order  of  Nature  no  immanent  purpose. 

To  empty  the  conception  of  finality  is  to  destroy 
it.  And  to  regard  it  as  a  subjective  illusion  is  to  rob 
it  of  reality.  Herbart  well  contends  that  if  we  have 
a  mental  concept  of  finality,  we  are  under  the  same 
necessity  to  apply  it  to  the  external  world  as  we 
have  to  apply  the  concept  of  causality.  The  theory, 
then,  of  a  subjective  finality  may  be  dismissed  as 
without  further  interest  to  philosophy. 

It  is  again  said  that  finality  may  be  regarded  as 
instinctive  ;  in  other  words — as  held  by  Lachelier — 
Objection  of  "  the  mcans  arrange  themselves  in  the  fit 
Lacheiitr.      ^^^^^  ^^  rcalizc  the  end." 

This  is  again  to  empty  the  word  finality  of  all 
meaning,  for,  as  has  been  often  pointed  out,  the 
tendency  of  means  towards  an  end  is  not  the  same 
as  acting  for  an  end.  In  such  a  conception  of 
finality  there  is  neither  intention,  nor  intelligence. 
"  What  is  stranger,"  asks  F^nelon,  '*  than  to  imagine 
stones  that  grow,  that  come  out  of  the  quarry,  that 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     1 39 


ascend  one  upon  each  other,  leaving  no  space,  that 
carry  with  them  the  cement  to  unite  them,  that  ar- 
range themselves  so  as  to  provide  apartments,  that 
receive  beams  above  them  to  roof  in  the  work?  " 

As  Janet  suggests,  to  say  that  an  architect  selects 
and  foresees  the  means  needed  for  a  structure  is  not 
equivalent  to  the  statement  that  these  means  all 
alone  arranged  themselves  to  build  the  edifice. 

In  commemorating  the  rebuilding  of  Drury  Lane 
Theatre,  the  authors  of  Rejected  Addresses  wittily 
illustrated  the  irrationality  of  the  theory  of  Lucre- 
tius, that  the  world  was  the  product  of  chance  : 

"  From  floating  elements  in  chaos  hurled, 
Self-formed  of  chaos  sprang  the  infant  world. 
No  great  First  Cause  inspired  the  happy  plot, 
But  all  was  matter — and  no  matter  what — 
Atoms  attracted  by  some  law  occult, 
Settling  in  spheres — this  globe  was  the  result. 
I  sing  how  casual  bricks,  in  airy  climb 
Encountered  casual  cow-hair,  casual  lime  ; 
How  rafters  borne  through  wandering  clouds  elate, 
Kissed,  in  their  slope,  blue  elemental  slate. 
Clasped  solid  beams  in  chance-directed  fury 
And  gave  birth  to  our  renovated  Drury." 

Nor,  if  we  make  intelligence  one  of  the  means, 
can  we  speak  with  reason  of  an  instinctive  Finality. 
What  is  more  illogical  than  to  endow  means  with 
intelligence  when  intelligence  is  the  very  end — by 
the  hypothesis  of  instinctive  Finality — towards 
which  the  means  are  tending.  Means  thus  exist  to 
discover  means,  and  we  have  an  example  of  circular 
reasoning.  Finality  without  intention  is  devoid  of 
meaning ;  Cosmic  force  is  but  a  name  for  intelligent 


140  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


Will,  and  the  Universe  is  a  scheme  of  thought.  The 
Order  of  Nature  is  vast,  the  mind  of  man  is  finite, 
and  may  not  be  able  to  say  what  telic  significance 
may  be  discerned  in  amorphous  rocks,  barren  plains, 
animal  malformations,  or  in  organs  which  no  longer 
have  any  use. 

But  it  will  be  forever  natural  to  the  mind  to  discern 
a  particular  adaptation  of  the  eye  to  light,  of  the  ear 
Rationaiit  of  ^^  sound,  and  something  more  than  a  sur- 
speciai  vival  of  the  fittest  in   the  correlation  of 

design.  tooth  and  claw  to  the  digestive  organs  of 

predatory  animals.  More  difficult  still  to  derive  the 
rational  powers  of  man  from  the  content  of  an  un- 
intelligent Cosmos  ;  for  it  is  inconceivable  that  from 
an  unintelligent  Ground  there  should  emerge  the 
genius  of  Shakspere  or  the  spiritual  elevation  of 
F^nelon.  The  higher  cannot  come  from  the  lower. 
Evolution  presupposes  Involution. 

Much  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  wastefulness  of 
Nature,  the  presence  of  physical  and  moral  evil,  and 
Evil  no  though  these  riddles  may  defy  solution. 

Disproof  of  the  order  of  the  world,  that  is,  the  uni- 
Finahty.  formity  of  Nature,  is  accepted  by  theistic 
and  non-theistic  thinkers  alike,  as  affording  a  solid 
basis  for  the  sciences  which  are  claimed  by  them  to 
be  the  most  certain  of  all  our  achievements  of  know- 
ledge. The  acceptance  by  scientists  of  the  uni- 
formity of  Nature  is  an  act  of  faith  in  the  trust- 
worthiness of  Nature,  in  other  words,  of  faith  in  its 
moral  character.  Theism  is  thus  virtually  accepted 
by  every  experimenter  in  science.      For  the  consti- 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     1 4 1 


tution  of  the  world  appeals  to  trust,  and  never  be- 
trays it.  It  is  morally  trustworthy  and  reveals  a 
moral  personal  Ground.  This  thought  has  been  well 
set  forth  by  Professor  Alexander  Campbell  Fraser,  in 
his  Philosophy  of  Theism. 

Nor  is  the  world — save  by  pessimists,  who  interest 
mostly  the  pathologists — to  be  regarded  as  one  in 
which  benevolence  is  not  predominantly  manifest, 
and  the  energy  and  hopefulness  of  the  great  majority 
of  those  who  direct  human  affairs  accuse  the  des- 
pair of  the  few  whose  minds  would  seem  to  lack 
equilibrium.  Man  may  have  erred  in  thinking  him- 
self to  be  the  sole  end  for  which  the  universe  was 
called  into  being. 

The  anthropocentric  conception  of  the  world  has 
been  set  aside  by  the  heliocentric,  and  the  universe 
is  felt  to  exist  for  even  a  higher- end  than  man,  or  his 
temporal  happiness.  Steam  has  not  found  its  ex- 
planation in  railway  transit  alone,  nor  does  electricity 
exist  solely  for  flashing  messages.  The  supreme  im- 
port of  the  universe  must  be  found  in  the  purpose 
of  Goodness.  While,  however,  the  anthropocentric 
view  of  the  universe  has  been  outgrown  by  thought, 
man  has  been  placed  by  science  at  the  summit  of 
the  hierarchies  of  life. 

Biology  assures  us  that  no  race  zoologically  dis- 
tinct from  or  higher  than  man,  can,  through  known 
laws,  be  produced.  Man's  progress  in  y^^^^^^  ^^j 
future  ages  will  be  a  progress  psychical,  of  develop- 
but  will  undergo  no  physical  change.    The  "'^"*' 

history  of  Life  culminates  in  the  Divine  form  of  man, 


142  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


and  in  his  moral  and  spiritual  nature,  God  makes  his 
highest  revelation.  *  As  self-conscious  and  self- 
directing,  man  wears  the  impress  of  Divinity,  and 
as  the  microcosm  he  reflects  in  his  intelligence 
the  rays  of  ultimate  Reason.  Christ  himself  de- 
clared that  the  great  end  of  man's  being  is  to  be 
like  the  Father ;  and  this  is  the  highest  conceivable 
Finality. 

And  though  riddles  of  the  Sphinx  may  never  be 
answered,  and  in  certain  processes  of  Nature  we  may 
now  fail  to  discern  a  purpose,  yet  science  can  never 
be  persuaded  that  the  world  order  is  not  one  of 
reason.  After  centuries  have  elapsed,  we  may  say 
with  Anaxagoras  :  "  Nov3  Ttavra  dirfKoa^rjae.^^  In- 
telligence is  the  simplest  and  highest  explanation 
of  the  world. 

In  the  course  of  the  argument  it  has  been  con- 
tended that  the  personality  of  man  and  the  person- 
The  Divine    ality  of  God  are  homogeneous,  and  that 

Ta"  ^fatilciy  ^^^°^S^  ^"^  °^^  sclf-consciousncss  we 
be  known,  have  an  intuition  of  the  self-conscious- 
ness of  the  Absolute. 

It  is  now  objected,  that  we  as  finite  beings  can  not 
know  the  Absolute,  and  such  a  spell  is  exerted  by  a 
word  upon  the  mind,  that  there  seems  to  exist  a  real 
difficulty.  To  say  that  our  knowledge  is  relative, 
that  is,  the  knowledge  possessed  by  a  finite  being,  is 
only  to  say  that  we  must  know  God,  as  man  can 
know,  and  not  as  some  other  order  of  beings  can 
know  him.  It  is  not  a  hardship  to  be  compelled  to 
*  Note  VIII. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     143 


know  any  reality  according  to  the  laws  of  our  being. 
The  choice  is  between  no  knowledge  at  all,  an  ab- 
dication of  our  human  nature,  and  knowledge  by 
means  of  the  faculties  which  constitute  us  human 
minds.  It  is  true  we  must  know  in  relations,  and 
that  there  is  any  knowledge  apart  from  relations  is 
not  conceivable.  Absolute  Being  cannot  be  Being 
which  excludes  relations,  nor  is  the  Absolute  opposed 
to  the  Relative  in  the  sense  of  excluding,  but  in  the 
sense  of  implying  it.  The  Absolute  is  not  that  which 
is  out  of  relation,  but  that  in  which  relation  has  its 
ground.  The  Absolute  contains  no  despotic  mean- 
ing such  as  that,  of  existence  out  of  relation.  *^  An 
Absolute  excluding  relation  would  be  as  unmeaning 
as  a  substance  without  properties,  or  an  agent  in- 
capable of  action."  "^ 

It  is  again  said,  that  we  cannot  reason  from  hu- 
man self-consciousness  or  personality  to  the  self- 
consciousness  of  the  Absolute.  Human  seif-con- 
self-consciousness  is  related    to  external    sciousnessof 

,.  t.  •  .  f  /T>i  ir  Man,  and 

stimuli  or  impressions  of  sense.  1  he  self  Divine  seif- 
can  achieve  no  knowledge,  except  through  consciousness, 
the  occasioning  activity  of  the  not-self.  Hence  the 
Ego,  or  subject  of  states  is  conditioned  by  the  action 
of  that  which  is  not-self,  and  to  be  thus  conditioned 
is  to  be  limited,  therefore  the  self-consciousness  of 
the  Absolute  would  be  limited  and  the  Absolutewould 
become  finite.  The  answer  given  by  Lotze  seems  to 
be  valid,  that  self-consciousness  is  possible,  not  for 
conditioned  or  dependent  beings  alone.      That  self- 

*  Scientific  Basis  of  Faith,     Note  IX.,  p.  130. 


144  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


consciousness  is  conditioned  by  that  which  is  not- 
self,  is  true  only  of  human  consciousness. 

The  self-consciousness  of  God  is  not  necessarily 
dependent  upon  an  external  universe  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  contrast  within  his  mind.  The  orienta- 
tion with  an  environment  so  necessary  to  a  finite 
being,  is  not  required  to  constitute  the  Divine  Per- 
sonality. Even  man  lives  at  times  in  a  realm  of 
ideas,  conscious  of  the  ebb  and  flow  of  feelings  and 
purposes  which  he  can  refer  to  himself  as  their  sub- 
ject, and  which  in  the  exercise  of  his  higher  reason, 
seem  to  be  wholly  independent  of  the  stimuli  or  im- 
pressions of  the  world,  outside  the  mind.  Man 
seems  thus  at  times  enfranchised  from  world  rela- 
tions, lives  in  an  ideal  world,  and  feels  himself  to  be 
the  sovereign  and  possessor  of  a  realm  of  thoughts 
and  feelings  which  are  in  constant  movement,  and 
constitute  an  opulent  inner  objectivity  in  contrast 
with  his  subjectivity.  And  thus  man  is  conscious  of 
a  larger  personality,  of  ascending  to  a  more  perfect 
likeness  to  the  Absolute  Self,  as  in  the  contempla- 
tion of  purer  ideals,  he  cuts  himself  loose  from  the 
suggestions,  passions,  and  interests,  which  the  lower 
world  excites  within  him. 

In  reply  to  Fichte,  who  contended  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  self  is  possible  only  through  the 
antithesis  of  the  not-self,  Krause  and  Lotze  hold 
the  view  that  in  order  to  distinguish  an  object  from 
one's  self  there  must  be  first  a  self-awareness,  that  is, 
it  is  necessary  first  to  possess  the  Ego.  And  Lotze 
regarding  this   Divine  self-consciousness  as   higher 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     145 


than  that  of  Man's,  remarks  '*  Perfect  Personality  is 
reconcilable  only  with  the  conception  of  an  Infinite 
Being;  for  finite  beings,  only  an  approximation  to 
this  is  attainable." 

But  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  rests  not  with 
arguments  of  a  metaphysical  nature,  it  finds  even  a 
more  solid  basis  in  the  ethical  feelings  of  man,  and 
the  faith  in  the  ethical  ideals  here  grasps  the  torch 
and  leads  us  onward  to  more  satisfactory  conclusions. 
The  consideration  of  this  Ground  of  Religious  Be- 
lief is  reserved  for  the  following  Chapter. 


NOTE 


"  Belief  in  the  personality  of  man,  and  belief  in  the 
personality  of  God,  stand  or  fall  together.  A  glance  at 
the  history  of  Religion  would  suggest  that  these  two  be- 
liefs are  for  some  reason  inseparable.  Where  faith  in 
the  personality  of  God  is  weak,  or  is  altogether  wanting, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  pantheistic  religions  of  the  East,  the 
perception  which  men  have  of  their  own  personality  is 
found  to  be  in  an  equal  degree  indistinct.  The  feeling 
of  individuality  is  dormant.  The  soul  indolently  ascribes 
to  itself  a  merely  phenomenal  being.  It  conceives  of 
itself  as  appearing  for  a  moment,  like  a  wavelet  on  the 
ocean,  to  vanish  again  in  the  all  engulfing  essence  whence 
it  emerged.  Recent  philosophical  theories  which  sub- 
stitute matter,  or  an  *  Unknowable  '  for  the  self-conscious 
Deity,  likewise  dissipate  the  personality  of  man  as  ordi- 
narily conceived.  If  they  deny  that  God  is  a  spirit,  they 
deny  with  equal  emphasis  that  man  is  a  spirit.  The  pan- 
theistic and  atheistic  schemes  are  in  this  respect  con- 
sistent in  their  logic.     Out  of  man's  perceptions  of  his 


146  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


own  personal  attributes  arises  the  belief  in  a  personal 
God.  On  this  fact  of  our  own  personality  the  validity 
of  the  argument  for  Theism  depends."  * 

NOTE   II. 

There  is  no  value  in  the  conception  of  an  older  psy- 
chology of  the  static  unity  of  the  soul  prior  to  all  actual 
living  experience.  It  is  a  subject  that  becomes  one  in 
the  manifold  progressive  life,  is  an  actual  unifying  of 
the  manifold  ;  its  reality  is  known  by  the  modes  of  action 
in  which  it  puts  forth  its  energy.  Our  ideas,  feelings, 
states,  or  acts  are  unintelligible  to  us,  save  as  states  or 
acts  of  the  Ego  as  the  combining  centre  in  which  they 
cohere.  And  however  disconnected,  in  certain  cases, 
these  states  may  be,  and  in  our  absorption  in  witnessing 
some  outward  tragedy,  or  in  reverie,  however  we  may 
cease  to  be  self-conscious, — these  facts  do  not  impugn 
the  soul's  unity  but  actually  imply  it,  for  the  very  recog- 
nition of  transient  unconnectedness, — as  has  been  pointed 
out,  is  possible  only  by  postulating  the  unity  of  the  cog- 
nitive subject  as  the  unity  of  a  being  able  to  discern  the 
difference  between  unconnectedness  and  its  opposite. 
The  stability  of  the  personal  soul  is  not  imperilled  by 
the  variety  of  its  internal  states.  Were  it  an  absolutely 
unvarying  subject,  then  a  changing  psychical  life  would 
become  impossible.  Its  permanent  unity  is  not  mathe- 
matical, but  that  of  a  being  capable  of  blending  all 
changes,  and  of  reducing  them  to  an  internal  harmony, 
"  as  the  manifold  chords  of  a  musical  composition  are 
combined  to  utter  a  dominant  theme." 

*  Prof.  G.  P.  Fisher,  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief, 
p.  I. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     147 


The  subject  of  a  cycle  of  phenomena,  in  being  perma- 
nent, as  Lotze  affirms,  "  is  not  disqualified  for  perform- 
ing the  much  more  important  function  of  acting  as  a 
centre  for  the  exeunt  and  ineunt  actions  of  which,  the 
cycle  of  phenomena  to  be  explained,  consists." 

The  individuality  of  our  being  becomes  then  manifest 
by  the  actions  themselves  of  the  soul  in  its  empiric  life. 
To  confess  that  we  must  infer  its  unitary  reality  from  its 
phenomena  or  actions,  however  called  forth  from  it,  and 
that  we  cannot  envisage  that  unity  as  something  apart 
from  its  actual  energizing  life  ;  and,  further,  to  sum  up 
our  convictions  of  the  nature  of  its  being,  by  saying  that 
it  is  "  something  which  contains  the  capacity  for  devel- 
opment," may  seem  not  enough  to  clear  up  the  idea  of 
personality.  But  what  can  we  ever  know  more  of  this 
reality  of  the  soul  than  that  it  exists  as  one,  and  that  as 
unity  it  combines  its  manifold  states.  Of  the  essence  of 
anything,  apart  from  its  conditions  which  stimulate  its 
energy,  can  we  know  nothing,  as  we  cannot  see  any  ob- 
ject without  light.  The  soul  itself  must  be  known  by 
what  it  reveals  of  its  nature  in  the  experience  of  unfold- 
ing life.  This  sovereign,  central  power  of  the  soul  that 
unifies  the  manifold  of  its  states,  and  is  not  merely  a 
stream  of  ideas  without  cohesion,  nor  a  flow  of  states 
without  a  central  subject  in  which  they  are  held  to- 
gether, constitutes  the  reality  of  the  Soul,  the  human 
Personality. 

NOTE    III. 

Mr.  Illingworth,  in  Bampton  Lectures^  1894,  p.  48, 
quotes  DuBois-Reymond  as  saying :  "  The  complete 
knowledge  of  the  brain,  the  highest  knowledge  we  can 
attain,   reveals   to   us   nothing    but   matter   in   motion. 


148  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


.  .  .  What  conceivable  connection  exists  between 
certain  movements  of  certain  atoms  in  my  brain  on  the 
one  hand,  and  on  the  other  the,  to  me,  original  and  not 
further  definable  but  undeniable  facts,  '  I  feel  pain, 
feel  pleasure  ;  I  take  something  sweet,  smell  roses,  hear 
organ-sounds,  see  something  red,'  and  the  just  as  imme- 
diately resulting  certainty  '  therefore  I  am  '  ?  It  is  im- 
possible to  see  how,  from  the  co-operation  of  the 
atoms,  consciousness  can  result.  Even  if  I  were  to  at- 
tribute consciousness  to  the  atoms,  that  would  neither 
explain  consciousness  in  general,  nor  would  that  in  any 
way  help  us  to  understand  the  unitary  consciousness  of 
the  individual." 

"  Among  all  the  errors  of  the  human  mind,"  says  H. 
Lotze,  "  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  the  strangest  that  it 
could  come  to  doubt  its  own  existence,  of  which  alone 
it  has  direct  experience,  or  to  take  it  at  second  hand  as 
the  product  of  an  external  nature,  which  we  know  only 
indirectly,  only  by  the  means  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
very  mind  to  which  we  would  fain  deny  existence." 

Compelled  to  choose  between  the  interpretation  of 
Mind  in  terms  of  matter,  or  the  interpretation  of  Nature 
in  terms  of  Mind,  we  cannot  hesitate  to  choose  the  latter. 
We  know  more  about  Mind  than  we  do  about  matter. 
It  is  by  the  Mind  that  we  become  conscious  of  matter  ; 
not  by  matter  do  we  become  conscious  of  Mind,  for 
matter  cannot  at  the  same  time  be  both  conscious  and 
unconscious. 

NOTE    IV. 

"  Not  till  we  put  forth  and  direct  our  own  Causality, 
whether  simply  percipient  or  motory,  have  we  revelation 
of  the  causality  of  the  world  ;  so  that  it  is  not  in  mere 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     149 


exposure  to  changes,  but  in  concomitant  production  of 
them,  that  this  intellectual  intuition  is  gained.  Further, 
in  the  genesis  of  our  consciousness,  both  the  Ego  and 
the  Non-Ego  are  embraced  as  foci  within  the  same  cate- 
gory of  causality,  and  in  the  same  objective  relations. 
True,  the  subjective  focus  has  in  it,  as^  a  seat  of  con- 
sciousness, an  immediate  feeling  of  operative  Will  which 
can  only  be  reflected  on  to  the  other.  But  reflected  it 
is,  and  must  forever  be  ;  for  it  is  identified  with  the  in- 
most essence  of  the  sole  causality  accessible  to  thought. 
And  accordingly  it  is  read  by  us  into  the  Non-Ego  as 
what  would  be  stirring  in  us  if  we  could  change  places 
with  it  ;  and  is,  in  truth,  the  ground  of  that  fellow- 
feeling  with  Nature,  which  Philosophy,  deluded  by  its 
own  abstractions,  rashly  surrendered  to  the  poet,  but 
will  have  to  beg  back  again,  whenever  it  returns  into 
living  relations  with  reality.  To  the  world  we  are  intro- 
duced not  as  to  a  dead  thing,  or  material  aggregate  of 
things,  but  as  to  another  Self,  just  as  causal  as  we,  in- 
stinct with  hidden  Will,  and  so  far  presenting  the  outer 
and  the  inner  spheres  in  true  equipoise."  * 

"  Of  all  the  Intuitive  Faculties  which  are  peculiar  to 
Man  that  of  self-consciousness  is  the  most  prominent. 
In  virtue  of  that  faculty  or  power,  without  any  deliber- 
ate reasoning  or  logical  process  of  any  formal  kind,  Man 
must  have  been  always  familiar  with  the  idea  of  energies 
which  are  themselves  invisible,  and  only  to  be  seen  in 
their  effects.  His  own  loves  and  hates,  his  own  gratitude 
and  revenge,  his  own  schemes  and  resolves,  must  have 
been  familiar  to  him  from  the  first  as  things  in  them- 
selves invisible,  and  yet  having  power  to  determine  the 

*  Studies  in  Religion,  by  Dr.  James  Martineau,  vol.  i.,  p.  190. 


1 50  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


most  opposite  and  the  most  decisive  changes  for  good  or 
evil  in  things  which  are  visible  and  material. 

"  It  never  could  have  been  difficult  for  him,  therefore, 
to  separate  the  idea  of  Personality  or  of  the  efficiency  of 
Mind  and  Will,  from  the  attribute  of  visibility.  It  never 
could  have  been  any  difficulty  with  him  to  think  of  liv- 
ing Agencies  other  than  his  own,  and  yet  without  any 
Form,  or  with  Forms  concealed  from  sight.  There  is  no 
need,  therefore,  to  hunt  farther  afield  for  the  origin  of 
this  conception  than  Man's  own  consciousness  of  him- 
self.    .     .     . 

"...  To  conceive  of  the  energies  that  are  outside 
of  him  as  like  the  energies  that  he  feels  within  him,  is 
simply  to  think  of  the  unknown  in  terms  of  the  familiar 
and  known.  .  .  It  must  have  been  in  the  very  nature 
of  things,  the  earliest,  the  simplest,  and  the  most  neces- 
sary of  conceptions."  * 

It  is  not  through  the  discourse  of  the  understanding 
that  we  reach  the  highest  truths  of  Reality.  We  can 
only  explicate  the  intuitions  which  we  have.  Philosophy 
is,  in  one  sense,  a  disease  of  the  Mind.  "  We  end  where 
we  began  but  not  as  we  began."  The  fabled  spear  that 
wounded,  could  also  heal. 

NOTE    V. 

The  cosmological  argument  in  its  later  form  justly  de- 
mands the  assent  of  Science.  It  no  longer  aims  to  prove 
a  scientific  First  Cause,  calling  the  World  into  being  at 
some  remote  moment  of  past  time.  \  It  rests  upon  the 
more  cogent  conception  of  a  Unitary  Causal  Ground,  to 

♦Duke  of  Argyle,  Unity  of  Nature,  pp.  473-4. 
f  Such  a  Cause  would  be  only  a  demiurge. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     1 5 1 


account  for  the  whole  order  of  dynamic  activities  and 
phenomenal  changes. 

The  Universe  is  seen  to  be  not  a  statical  affair,  but  a 
dynamism,  a  disclosure  of  immanent  Agency.  This  view 
of  Nature  avails  itself  of  the  postulates  of  science  ;  in- 
deed, the  Philosophy  of  Religion  seeks  to  find  the  Ulti- 
mate Ground  for  all  the  facts  disclosed  by  the  sciences, 
and  the  conflict  between  science  and  religious  philosophy 
is  thus  no  longer  possible. 

The  atoms,  whether  psychical  or  physical,  were  held 
by  Leibniz  and  Kant,  and  later  by  Lotze,  to  be  spiritual 
Monads,  differentiations  of  the  Absolute  Substance,  pos- 
sessing an  imparted  individuality,  each  one  a  psychical 
unity.  In  the  interactions  of  these  monads,  capable  of 
maintaining  their  selfhood  by  mutual  resistance,  they 
give  rise  to  the  aspect  of  impenetrability  or  matter. 

Cosmical  phenomena,  therefore,  arise  from  the  activity 
of  these  so-called  atoms  of  science,  which  are  centres  of 
energy,  and  which  may  ascend  from  the  faintest  sentience 
of  pain  and  pleasure,  from  the  inorganic  world,  in  the 
vegetable  and  animal  organisms  up  through  the  whole 
gamut  of  consciousness,  until  the  conscious  states  of  the 
ruling  monads  arrive  at  volitional  energy  analogous  to 
our  own.  Matter  would  then  be  seen  to  be  a  stress  or 
imprisonment  of  souls  for  purpose  of  moral  education, 
and  to  bring  insurgent  monads  into  harmony  of  will  with 
the  Will  of  God. 

The  precosmic  sin,  the  ascent  and  descent  of  spiritual 
monads  suggested  by  Origen,  seems  to  be  an  anticipation 
of  the  modern  view  of  the  Cosmos  as  constituted  of 
Spirits.  In  the  Hibbert  Lectures  of  Professor  Hatch 
justice  is  rendered  to  the  genius  of  Origen,  and  his  cos- 
mothetic  suggestions. 


152  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


Religious  Philosophy  and  Evolutionary  Science  ob- 
serve with  common  interest  the  ascending  intensities 
of  psychical  activity  of  these  ultimate  energies,  and  dis- 
cern the  rational  connection  of  dynamic  conditions  of 
the  present  moment  with  those  of  the  preceding  moment. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  think  that  there  was  any  begin- 
ning for  this  interaction  of  psychical  or  physical  atoms 
or  monads,  which  have  their  ground  in  the  Eternal 
Substance.  As  we  in  our  self-consciousness  find  the 
ground  intuitively  of  our  personal  existence  in  the  Ab- 
solute Being,  so  these  monads  betray  no  signs  of  self- 
subsistence,  and,  as  innumerable  centres  of  energy,  they, 
by  the  changes  of  the  states  of  the  Absolute  Ground, 
are  made  to  conspire  together  for  the  evolution  of  the 
world-process,  which  is  a  process  of  intelligence.  Each 
living  atom  and  each  human  mind  is  in  essential  re- 
lation to  the  Eternal  Substance,  otherwise  no  action 
between  bodies  or  between  the  soul  and  Nature  is 
conceivable. 

As  already  pointed  out  in  accordance  with  the  view  of 
Lotze,  among  all  these  centres  of  energy,  as  plurality, 
there  can  be  no  complete  independence,  nor  can  there 
be  action  of  one  body  upon  another  apart  from  the  sup- 
position of  a  deeper  unity,  to  which  all  monads  are  re- 
lated. It  is  by  the  changes  in  the  Unitary  Ground  that 
"  the  changes  in  the  inner  state  of  one  Monad  produces 
a  change  in  the  internal  activity  of  contiguous  Monads." 

Thus,  as  we  cannot  as  minds  interchange  our  ideas 
with  each  other,  except  as  we  are  members  together  of  a 
commonwealth  of  Reason,  so  all  psychical  or  physical 
Monads  must  have  their  common  ground  in  the  One, 
true,  and  Absolute  Being.  The  dynamics  which  con- 
stitute the  universe  are  not  only  conceived  to  be  spirit- 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief,     153 


ual  centres  or  Monads,  deriving  individuality  from  the 
Absolute,  but  to  explain  their  conspiracy  or  organic 
unity,  which  appears  as  the  Cosmos,  we  are  driven  by 
the  necessity  of  thought  to  suppose  a  self-existent  Unit- 
ary Will  the  ground  of  their  being.  The  ethical  feeling, 
however,  recoils  from  the  view  that  these  ultimate  in- 
dividualities are  dependent  upon  the  changes  in  the 
inner  states  of  the  Divine  Consciousness,  but  ceases  to 
recoil  from  implied  fatality  when  the  freedom  of  the 
Monads  is  regarded. 

The  real  difficulty  lies  in  the  relation  of  the  Finite  to 
the  Infinite.  How  can  finite  Man  be  free,  as  he,  like  the 
Monads,  is  dependent  upon  the  Infinite  ?  The  conscious- 
ness of  human  freedom  is  meanwhile  a  fact,  illustrated 
by  the  history  of  the  race,  an  indispensable  datum  for 
belief  in  morals  and  the  claims  of  duty.  The  dependent 
relation  of  the  Monads  and  of  Man  can  give  thought  no 
distress,  so  long  as  man  has  this  indecomposable  intuition 
of  freedom. 

NOTE   VI. 

The  theory  of  Evolution  was  implicit  in  the  works  of 
Aristotle,  in  his  doctrine  of  potentiality  and  actuality 
{dvva/113  and  eyepyeia).  "Though  potentiality  (Dr. 
F.  G.  S.  Schiller,  Riddles  of  the  Sphinx,  pp.  197,  199,)  is 
prior  to  the  actuality  in  the  order  of  time  and  in  the 
order  of  our  knowledge,  yet  the  actuality  is  really  prior 

to  and  presupposed  by  the  potential It  is 

only  by  a  recognition  of  final  causes  that  the  conception 
of  causation  can  be  cleared  of  its  difficulties." 

Thus  involution,  so  far  from  abolishing  Finality,  proves 
to  be  in  accord  with  the  conception  of  Aristotle,  and  the 
teleology  implicit  in  Evolution  is,  as  Mr,  Huxley  con- 


1 54  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


cedes,  the  most  sublime  realization  of  purpose  of  which 
we  can  form  a  conception.  "  The  laws  of  Nature  can- 
not account  for  their  own  origin,"  says  Mr.  Mill,  the 
great  Master  in  Inductive  Philosophy,  in  his  review  of 
Comte  (^IV est  minster  Review,  April,  1865). 

It  is  obvious  that  we,  as  finite  beings,  cannot  compre- 
hend the  finality  of  the  world-process.  Included  in  this 
purpose  must  be  not  only  man  as  he  has  thus  far  developed 
his  character,  but  the  race  in  its  entire  history  and  the 
higher  minds  which  shall  appear.  Finality  will  become 
more  cogent  and  clearer  as  minds  shall,  ages  hence,  arrive 
at  higher  discernment  of  the  meaning  of  the  world-pro- 
cess. 

"  La  Nature  est  une  evolution  dont  la  Perfection  in- 
finie  est  a  la  fois  la  force  impulsive  et  le  but  supreme."  * 

NOTE   VII. 

In  his  Winkley  Lectures,  p.  205,  Pres.  J.  G.  Schurman 
quotes  a  remarkable  passage  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  Dar- 
win to  Mr.  Huxley.  "  You  have,"  writes  Darwin,  "  most 
cleverly  hit  on  one  point  which  has  greatly  troubled  me  ; 
if,  as  I  must  think,  external  conditions  produce  little 
direct  effect.  What  determines  each  particular  varia- 
tion ?  What  makes  a  tuft  of  feathers  come  on  a  cock's 
head,  or  moss  on  a  moss  rose  ? "  And  Pres.  Schurman 
adds,  "  until  that  query  is  answered,  the  proof  that  the 
eye  has  'come'  by  way  of  natural  selection,  instead  of 
having  been  *  specially  made,'  is  no  proof  that  its  com- 
ing was  unintentional.  And  when  the  query  is  answered, 
it  will  be  seen  that  though  we  have  in  the  eye  a  result 

*"  Aristotle,"  "Descartes,"  "Hegel."  JJistoire  de  la  Philoso- 
phie  Europ^ene,  p.  574.     Alfred  Weber. 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     1 5  5 


which  is  brought  about  only  in  accordance  with  the  inex- 
orable laws  of  causation,  it  is  a  result  that  cannot  be 
exhaustively  explained  on  a  merely  mechanical  or  blind 
necessitarian  theory  of  the  Universe." 

To  the  above  may  be  added  the  remarks  of  Professor 
Romanes  quoted  by  Professor  Upton  in  his  Hibbert  Lec- 
tures, p.  231,  "I  need  scarcely  wait  to  show  why  it  appears 
to  me  that  the  world-object  furnishes  overwhelming 
proof  of  psychism.  There  is  first  the  antecedent  im- 
probability that  the  human  mind  should  be  the  highest 
manifestation  of  subjectivity  in  this  universe  of  infinite 
objectivity.  There  is  next  the  fact  that  throughout 
this  universe  of  infinite  objectivity — so  far  at  least  as 
human  observation  can  extend — there  is  unquestionable 
evidence  of  some  one  integrating  principle,  whereby  all 
its  many  complex  parts  are  correlated  with  one  another 
in  such  wise  that  the  result  is  universal  order.  And  if 
we  take  any  part  of  the  whole  system,  such  as  that  of 
organic  nature  on  this  planet  to  examine  in  more  detail, — 
we  find  that  it  appears  instinct  with  contrivance.  So  to 
speak,  wherever  we  tap  organic  nature  it  seems  to  flow 
with  purpose,  .  .  .  Assuredly  no  human  mind  could 
either  have  devised  or  maintained  the  working  of  even  a 
fragment  of  Nature  ;  .  .  .  The  Spirit,  as  it  were,  of 
the  universe — must  be  something  which,  while,  as  I  have 
said,  holding  nearest  kinship  with  our  highest  conception 
of  disposing  power,  must  be  yet  immeasurably  superior 
to  the  psychism  of  man." 

NOTE    VIII. 

In  the  little  book,  The  Destiny  of  Man,  by  Professor  John 
Fiske,  he  has  in  eloquent  words  affirmed  man  to  be  the 
goal  of  evolution,  referring  to  Mr.  Spencer  as  holding 


1 56  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


"  that  the  conscious  soul  is  not  the  product  of  the  col- 
location of  material  particles,  but  is  in  the  deepest  sense 
a  divine  effluence." 

"  Speaking  for  myself,"  says  Professor  Fiske,  "  I  can 
see  no  insuperable  difficulty  in  the  notion  that  at  some 
period  in  the  evolution  of  Humanity  this  divine  spark 
may  have  acquired  sufficient  concentration  and  steadi- 
ness to  survive  the  wreck  of  material  forms  and  endure 
forever.  Such  a  crowning  wonder  seems  to  me  no  more 
than  the  fit  climax  to  a  creative  work  that  has  been  in- 
effably beautiful  and  marvellous  in  all  its  myriad  stages. 

"  Only  on  some  such  view  can  the  reasonableness  of  the 
Universe,  which  still  remains  far  above  our  finite  power 
of  comprehension,  maintain  its  ground.  There  are  some 
minds  inaccessible  to  the  class  of  considerations  here 
alleged,  and  perhaps  there  will  always  be.  But  on 
such  grounds,  if  on  no  other,  the  faith  in  immortality 
is  likely  to  be  shared  by  all  who  look  upon  the  genesis  of 
the  highest  spiritual  qualities  in  man  as  the  goal  of 
Nature's  creative  work.  This  view  has  survived  the 
Copernican  revolution  in  science,  and  it  has  survived  the 
Darwinian  revolution.  Nay,  if  the  foregoing  exposition 
be  sound,  it  is  Darwinism  which  has  placed  Humanity 
upon  a  higher  pinnacle  than  ever.  The  future  is  lighted 
for  us  with  the  radiant  colors  of  hope.  Strife  and  sorrow 
shall  disappear.  Peace  and  love  shall  reign  supreme. 
The  dream  of  poets,  the  lesson  of  priest  and  prophet, 
the  inspiration  of  the  greatest  musician,  is  confirmed  in 
the  light  of  modern  knowledge  ;  and  as  we  gird  ourselves 
up  for  the  work  of  life,  we  may  look  forward  to  the  time 
when  in  the  truest  sense  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
shall  become  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  and  He  shall  reign 
forever  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords." 


Metaphysical  Grounds  of  Religious  Belief.     1 57 


NOTE    IX. 

"Is  the  Absolute  opposed  to  the  Relative  as  excluding 
it  or  implying  it  ?  Examples  from  the  world  of  material 
things  will  serve  as  well  as  any  other  to  illustrate  this 
distinction.  An  acid  and  an  alkali  are  opposed  as  ex- 
cluding each  other,  because  they  cannot  exist  together  ; 
if  they  come  into  atomic  contact,  they  neutralize  and 
destroy  each  other.  The  two  poles  of  a  magnet,  on  the 
contrary,  are  opposed  as  implying  each  other  ;  neither 
pole  can  be  isolated,  and  if  the  magnet  is  broken  in  two, 
each  part  presents  the  two  poles.  Now  does  the  abso- 
lute exclude  relation  or  imply  relation  ?  Certainly  the 
latter.  .  .  .  The  Creator  is  in  relation  to  all  created 
beings,  and  all  created  beings  are  in  relation  to  Him."* 
*  J.  J.  Murphy,  Scientific  Bases  of  Faith ^  page  130 


CHAPTER  IL 


ETHICAL  GROUNDS. 


THUS  far  the  necessities  of  thought  have  led  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  facts  of  Mind  and 
Nature  have  no  explanation  apart  from  an  Ultimate 
Reality,  which  we  must  regard  as  a  Unitary  Per- 
sonality. Metaphysics  thus  enables  the  Philosophy 
of  Religion  to  finish  one  stadium  of  progress. 

Man  possesses,  however,  not  alone  a  capacity  for 
knowledge  of  the  True  ;  the  dignity  of  his  soul  is 

constituted  of  feelings  which  reach  towards 
only  an  the  Good  and  Beautiful  as  well.     Ideals  of 

intellectual     gooducss  and  bcauty  play  even  a  more 

important  role  in  the  life  of  man,  than  do 
purely  intellectual  impulses.  The  heart  has  its  rights 
as  well  as  the  head,  and  we  recoil  from  thinking  that 
the  Divine  Personality  is  so  impoverished  as  not  to 
realize  in  perfection  these  ideals  which  haunt  the 
soul.  The  Ideal  and  the  Real  must  be  blended  in 
the  being  of  God,  or  the  heart  of  man  is  mocked 
with  hopes  which  are  baseless. 

158 


Ethical  Grounds,  1 59 


Man  is  an  ethical  being,  and  that  the  Author  of 
his  constitution  is  not  also  a  Moral  personality  is 
inconceivable.  The  higher  cannot  spring  from  the 
lower.  The  lower  must  be  interpreted  in  terms  of 
the  higher. 

The  Philosophy  of  Religion  seeks  to  answer  the 
question,  Is  the  Ground  of  all  being  an  Ethical  per- 
sonality?    Do  the  ideals,  which  from  ae^e         ^^^.    , 

J  .  Ethical 

to  age  have  been  developed  in  man's  pro-  character  of 
gress,  evoke  any  interest  from  the  pjeart  *^*^^^°^"*^" 
of  the  Universe  ?  In  the  spirit  of  Feuerbach's 
philosophy,  it  has  been  said  that  the  wish  is  father 
to  the  thought,  that  man's  longings  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  his  ideals  have  become  for  him  objective  in  a 
hypothetical  Being  v/ho  is  the  figment  of  his  desires. 

Mr.  Wm.  R.  Alger,  in  reply  to  the  assertion  that 
*'  the  unsatisfied  and  longing  soul  has  created  the 
doctrine  of  a  future  life,"  says :  "  Very  good  !  If  the 
soul  has  builded  a  house  in  Heaven,  flown  up  and 
made  a  nest  in  the  breezy  boughs  of  immortality,  that 
house  must  have  tenants,  that  nest  must  be  occupied. 
The  divinely  implanted  instincts  do  not  provide  and 
build  for  naught."  ^ 

Evolutionary  Ethics  may  historically  trace  the 
progress  of  man  towards  higher  ideals,  but  the  moral 
capacity  is  always  a  prior  fact.  As  it  is  an  Evolution  a 
offence  to  reason  to  say  that  thought  can  history  of 
come  from  unconscious  matter,  a  self-con-  ^^^^' 

scious  being  from  an  unconscious  source,  it  is  equally 
offensive  to  reason  to  affirm  that  the  Moral  can  come 

*  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life, 


i6o  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


forth  from  the  Non-Moral.  If  the  necessities  of 
thought  force  us  to  postulate  an  intelHgent  per- 
sonal Ground  of  Nature  and  Mind,  they  compel  us 
also — when  we  study  man's  moral  constitution — to 
postulate  an  ethical  Being  who  is  immanent  in  the 
whole  rational  and  moral  histoiy  of  man. 

The  moral  progress  of  the  race  is  not  to  be  ques- 
tioned ;  from  the  man  of  the  neolithic  age  to  the 
^  ,.    ,  Frenchman   of   to-day,  from   the   Briton 

Ethical  -^  ' 

progress  who  lauttched  his  coracle  on  the  water  of 
of  man.  ^^  Thames  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  to  the 

Englishman  of  the  House  of  Commons,  a  Gladstone 
or  a  Salisbury,  is  a  long  upward  march. 

But  moral  progress  is  inconceivable  without  a 
prior  capacity  for  moral  ideas,  and  that  capacity  is 
explained  in  terms  of  the  higher  and  not  in  terms  of 
the  lower,  by  the  ethical  Reality  which  is  both  the 
Primal  and  Final  Cause. 

"■  Morality,"  says  Prof.  O.  Pfleiderer,  ''  is  the 
realization  of  our  destiny  as  reasonable  creatures  in 
the  world  of  social  relations  ;  religion  the  realization 
of  the  same  destiny  in  reference  to  God." 

Morality  and  Religion  are,  then,  facts  from  the  first 
moment  of  human  consciousness,  and  have  had  their 
historic  development.  If,  as  it  is  thought,  we  may 
trace  the  historic  evolution  of  mind  through  zoologic 
stages  to  the  arrival  of  self-consciousness  in  man,  in 
similar  wise,  we  may  trace  the  evolution  of  morals 
from  the  lowest  stages  of  primitive  human  society 
to  the  society  of  the  present  day.  However  long 
the  process  of  development  of  the  worlds  of  matter 


Ethical  Grounds,  i6i 


and  mind,  a  Divine  Purpose  is  immanent  in  it ; 
nothing  emerges  in  a  later  stage  which  was  not  im- 
plicit in  the  first  stage  of  the  process.  The  facts  of 
man's  moral  and  religious  history  as  obviously  de- 
mand an  ethical  Ground  of  their  existence  as  the 
phenomena  of  Mind  and  Nature  have  demanded  of 
us  the  acceptance  of  a  Personal  Intelligence  for 
their  explanation. 

That  there  is  a  moral  ideal,  the  noblest  realization 
of  which  is  found  in  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus, 
all  schools  of  Ethics  are  disposed  to  grant. 

T^      i         1  It  ....  ,     .  The  Moral 

Both  the  schools  of  derivative  and  in- ideal  accepted 
tuitional  Morality  agree  that  there  is  an  ^^*.^'"^ 
ideal  of  absolute  worth,  not  a  means,  but 
an  end.  With  reference  to  the  individual,  that  end 
is  good-will ;  with  reference  to  the  race,  the  end  is 
social  welfare.  That  this  moral  ideal  has  a  historic 
development  is  not  denied.  It  is  liberated  with  the 
advancing  culture  of  man  into  clearer  apprehension, 
and  this  enlargement  can  occur  only  in  the  experi- 
ence of  social  life. 

That  Morality  is  useful,  the  experience  of  the 
world  teaches,  but  the  words  utility  and  happiness 
do  not  express  the  whole  content  of  the  moral  ideal, 
nor  do  they  carry  with  them  the  teleological  signifi- 
cance of  the  word  Goodness. 

The  reality  of  moral  distinctions  is  not,  then, 
affected  by  the  controversy  between  the  empirical 
and  intuitional  schools  of  Ethics.  That  man,  even 
in  a  savage  state,  has  an  idea  of  right,  of  the  better 
and  the  worse,  a  conception  of  moral  worth,  and 


1 62  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


that  he  attaches  to  that  idea  an  imperative  ought, 
or  a  law  of  unconditional  obligation,  is  a  universal 
and  constant  fact  of  his  history  in  all  ages  and  lands 
and  points  to  a  Source  of  all  his  ethical  ideals  and 
imperatives.  * 

The  indeterminate  factor  in  the  moral  life  of  man 
lies  in  the  varying  judgment  as  to  What  is  right, 
Indeterminate  ^^^  ^^^^^  things  ought  to  be,  or  be  done, 
element  in  That  there  is  a  right  is  unquestioned,  but 
just  what  it  is,  is  the  fact  which  man  is 
ever  more  clearly  determining  as  the  race  makes 
progress.  The  moral  ideal  is  an  ever-advancing  con- 
ception of  the  Ultimate  Good,  and  it  must  be  devel- 
oped in  social  relations  and  in  psychical  progress. 
Evolutionary  Ethics  undertakes  to  trace  this  pro- 
gress of  the  moral  judgment,  this  continually  liberated 
conception  of  what  is  right  and  of  absolute  worth. 
The  discipline  of  life  lies  in  this  struggle  to  purify 
and  exalt  our  moral  ideals,  constantly  surrendering 
the  lower  for  the  higher.  For  example,  the  scion  of 
a  noble  house  abandons  the  turf  from  a  conviction 
that  the  ideal  he  pursues  is  not  a  worthy  end,  and 
he  enters  parliamentary  life.  Soon  he  feels  that  he 
can  no  longer  vote  with  his  party,  and  goes  into  op- 
position ;  the  minority  under  his  leadership  becomes 
the  majority,  and  he  is  made  Premier.  Again  con- 
scious of  a  higher  standard,  to  the  level  of  which  he 
finds  it  impossible  to  bring  up  his  followers,  he  re- 
signs from  office. 

To  pronounce  such  a  course  of  action  quixotic  is 

*  Note  I. 


Ethical  Grounds.  163 


impossible,  save  for  those  who  deny  that  there  are 
any  moral  distinctions.  There  are  theorists  who 
have  the  courage  to  do  so,  but  such  a  denial  is  a 
challenge  to  the  universal  sentiment  of  civilized 
man,  and  is  to  refuse  to  find  in  nobility  of  character 
the  highest  meaning  and  value  of  life. 

The  argument  for  an  ethical  Being,  derived  from 
the  moral  constitution  of  man,  would  seem  to  be 
even  more  cogent  than  that  derived  from 

1  1'  r      1         1  .      1      r  1  Cognition  of 

the  reality  of  the  human  mmd,  for  the  the  ideal 
existence    of    the    Divine    Intelligfence.  ^°°*^' 

*^  immediate. 

Indeed,     Dr.    Martineau     contends    that 
through  conscience  we  have  as  direct  a  cognition 
of  God  as  through  the  senses  we  have  of  the  outer 
world.  * 

**  The  cognitions  we  gain  through  the  ordinary  exercise  of  the 
Senses  are  perfectly  analogous,  in  their  mode  of  origin,  to  those 
which  come  to  us  through  the  moral  faculty.  In  the  act  of  Percep- 
tion we  are  immediately  introduced  to  an  other  than  ourselves  that 
gives  us  ivhai  we  feel ;  in  the  act  of  Conscience,  we  are  immediately 
introduced  to  a  Higher  than  ourselves  that  gives  tis  what  we  feel :  the 
externality  in  the  one  case,  the  authority  in  the  other,  the  causality  in 
both,  are  known  upon  exactly  the  same  terms,  and  carry  the  same 
guarantee  of  their  validity."  f 

It  may  be  irrelevant  to  discuss  the  question, 
whether  our  moral  judgments  are  more  direct  or 
imperative  than  our  mental  judgments.  We  may 
be  content  with  saying  that  they  are  equally  direct 
and  imperative.  It  would  seem,  however,  that 
Philosophy  has  disputed  more  persistently  our 
power  to  know  things  external  to  the  mind,  than 

♦Study  of  Relig.,  vol.  I.,  p.  27.  \  Note  II. 


1 64  Idea/  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


it  has  our  power  to  know  that  there  is  a  something 
which  is  Right  and  Good. 

Assuredly  the  ethical  and  religious  Ideals  have 

proved    to    be    the    true    dynamics    of    progress. 

Throuerh  these  Ideals,  God  has  revealed 

Ethical  -  .  ,^  .   1        .  .  ,  - 

Ideals,  the  himself  With  increasing  clearness  and 
forces  of        powcr,  whilc  the  warfare  of  intellect  from 

history. 

age  to  age  has  left  ontological  problems, 
if  not  without  satisfactory  solution,  at  any  rate  with- 
out a  solution  that  commands  the  imperative  and 
unanimous  assent  which  the  moral  categories  secure. 
Professor  Upton  is  perhaps  right  in  saying  that — 

"  It  is  because  the  conscience  makes  known  the  possibility  in  man  of 
resisting  the  injunctions  of  the  moral  imperative,  that  it  reveals  a 
clear  distinction  between  the  Will  or  Personality  of  God  and  the  will 
or  personality  of  man,  and  thus  confers  upon  the  latter  an  independ- 
ent value  and  importance  which  it  always  tends  to  lose  when  the 
relation  between  man  and  God  is  viewed  solely  from  the  standpoint 
of  pure  reason  or  intellect.  Just  as  the  feeling  of  resistance  renders 
most  men  quite  unable  to  doubt  the  reality  of  an  external  world,  so 
does  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  resistance,  as  presented  in  the  dis- 
cord felt  at  times  between  the  human  will  and  the  invitations  and 
injunctions  of  the  Ideal,  /.  <?.,  of  the  indwelling  God,  make  it  im- 
possible for  any  one  in  whom  ethical  experience  is  vivid  to  remain 
satisfied  with  any  theory  which  treats  the  human  spirit  as  merely  a 
transient  mode  of  the  Universal  Spirit."  * 

This  revelation  of  a  Supreme  Authority  through 
the  conscience  is  a  refutation  of  the  Pantheism 
which  extinguishes  human  personality. 

The  self-revelation  of  God  is  made  through  the 
reason,  conscience,  and  will  of  man,  but  I  must 
think  that  the  ethical  Ground  of  Belief  is  that 
which  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  may  emphasize, 

*  Hibbert  Lectures^  p.  243. 


Ethical  Grounds,  165 


and  through  the  conscience,  man  is  most  immedi- 
ately related  to  God.  History  affords  ample  evi- 
dence that  moral  ties  have  held  men  to  faith,  when 
the  discursive  understanding,  exclusively  relied  upon, 
has  led  to  pantheistic  conclusions  which  have  para- 
lyzed moral  effort. 

The  errors  of  mysticism,  resulting  from  an  ex- 
cessive and  one-sided  confidence  in  feeling  unregu- 
lated by  the  reason,  have  been  productive  of  less 
harm  than  the  errors  which  have  sprung  from  an 
abstract  intellectualism.  The  three  elements  of 
feeling,  thought,  and  will  are,  as  Professor  Upton 
remarks,  *'  only  three  aspects  of  the  one  relationship 
of  the  finite  self  to  the  absolute  Self."  As  through 
the  will,  however,  we  ascertain  vividly  the  reality  of 
an  external  world,  or  the  reality  of  the  Divine  / 
Will,  which  is  immanent  in  Nature,  so  through  the 
moral  will  or  purpose  we  are  immediately  conscious 
of  a  Supreme  Will,  through  our  ideals  enjoining 
upon  us  the  duties  of  conduct. 

That  the  moral  imperatives  imply  an  immediate 
cognition  of  God,  and  are  the  most  important 
basis  of  Religious  Belief,  is  a  growing  conviction  of 
all  who  are  given  to  earnest  reflection. 

The  moral  ideals,  or  conceptions  of  the  right  and 
the  good,  becoming  more  and  more  clearly  mani- 
fest in  advancing  experience  of  life,  are 
attended  by  the  feeling  that  they  ought  imperaUve 
to  be  realized  in  conduct.  This  impera-  ^^  °*"*^f^ 
tive  within  the  dependent  soul,  derived 
from  the  immanent  Reason,  exercises  no  despotic 
influence   upon   the   will   of  man.     Man  is  left  to 


1 66  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


fashion  conduct  in  conformity  with,  or  in  opposition 
to,  this  inner  Divine  authority.  Reflection  confirms 
the  naive  belief  in  this  imperative  enthroned  in  the 
soul ;  nor  will  any  history  of  its  arrival  or  enthrone- 
ment divest  it  of  its  irresolvable  categorical  nature. 

"  The  consciousness  of  duty,"  says  Professor  Rauwenhofif,  "is  some- 
thing entirely  unique  in  us.  Far  from  always  agreeing  with  inclina- 
tion, it  is  for  the  most  part  opposed  to  it.  .  .  .  It  asks  nothing  about 
the  calculations  of  utility  or  expediency.  Inexorably  and  pitilessly 
it  pursues  us  with  '  Thou  must '  (Du  musst),  and  if  we  give  no  heed 
to  it  there  comes  into  the  '  Thou  must '  a  more  emphatic  tone, 
and  it  passes  over  into  an  imperative  '  Thou  shalt '  (Du  sollst). 

"Through  the  whole  of  our  life  (if  our  higher  nature  be  not 
stupefied  and  deadened  by  absorption  in  pleasure  or  some  ruling 
passion)  this  *  Thou  must '  accompanies  us,  and  as  we  reach  any  stage 
of  ethical  development,  we  still  feel  the  pressure  of  the  Ideal  sum- 
moning us  to  a  still  higher  point  of  moral  perfection."  * 

Professor  Upton  reminds  us  of  Mr.  Huxley's  can- 
did admission  in  his  Romanes  Lecture,  that  '*  there  is 
more  in  the  sentiment  of  '  ought '  than  evolutionist 
theories  avail  to  explain,"  and  also  that  Professor 
Sidgwick, — in  spite  of  his  sympathy  with  the  em- 
pirical school  of  Philosophy, — admits  that  the  feeling 
of  the  ought  is  unique,  that  is,  is  irresolvable  into 
feelings  of  pleasure,  pain,  or  sympathy. 

But  since  the  Moral  Ideals  are  accompanied  by 
this  categorical  imperative  of  duty.  Physiological 
Ethics  would  fain  resolve  the  moral  capacity  itself, 
for  these  ideals,  into  a  product  of  circumstance,  and 
the  conceptions  of  ideal  right  and  goodness  are  no 
longer  regarded  as  heaven-born,  but   as   springing 

♦  Quoted  by  Professor  Upton,  Hibbert  Lectures,  p.  250. 


Ethical  Grounds,  167 


from  the  dust  by  some  accident  of  change.  But  to 
clear  the  field  for  the  destruction  of  the  moral  capac- 
ity of  man,  the  denial  must  be  made  of  the  ethical 
personality  of  God.  For  if  the  Absolute  is  self-con- 
scious and  moral,  the  moral  capacity  in  man  finds 
an  explanation  of  its  reality.  It  is  felt  to  be  an 
absurdity  to  grant  an  ethical  character  to  the  Source 
of  Being  and  deny  the  Divine  origin  of  man's  ethical 
ideals.  The  only  alternative  is  to  deny  the  self- 
consciousness  or  personality  of  the  Absolute,  and 
here  again  the  two  personalities,  the  Divine  and 
human,  stand  or  fall  together.  Only  by  this  violent 
assault  upon  the  Divine  personality  can  the  moral 
capacity  of  man  be  derived  from  purely  physical 
sources. 

Here  again,  as  metaphysical  Philosophy  has  been 
compelled  to  defend  human  personality  as  a  free 
personaHty,  must  ethical  Philosophy  re- 
sist  the  attack  upon  that  central  fortress,  defend  man's 
If  man's  personality  is  not  free,  if  it  is  to  freedom, 
be  placed  under  the  law  of  a  necessary,  in  distinc- 
tion from  an  ideal,  evolution,  then  it  is  all  over  with 
ethics,  and,  it  is  obvious,  it  is  all  over  with  the  belief 
in  an  Ultimate  PersonaHty,  the  basal  Principle  of 
the  inner  and  outer  worlds.  Things  and  animals 
are  not  persons,  therefore  we  do  not  attribute  to 
them  merit  or  blame  when  they  injure  us.  Moral 
indignation  is  not  aroused  by  the  attack  of  a  lion, 
or  the  fall  of  a  stone  from  the  wall  of  a  house.  It 
is  not  the  ''  thing  done,"  but  the  "  person  doing," 
which  we  are  impelled  to  approve  or  condemn. 


68  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


An  ethical  personality  is  a  free  personality.     The 

Morality  of  Determinism,  in  physical  reference,  is  an 

illusion,   and   to    rescue    ethics   we  must 

choice  the      first  rcscue  freedom.     The  focus  of  free- 

focusof         (Jqj^  jg  ^}^g  moment  of  self-conscious,  re- 

liberty.  .  ' 

Sponsible  choice.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  psychological  history,  this  unique  fact  of 
decision  is  the  fortress  of  personality,  which  physio- 
logical psychology  will  not  be  able  to  carry  by 
storm.  We  have  seen  that  if  anything  whatever 
can  be  known  or  is  known  to  be  real,  it  is  a  unitary 
Subject  or  Ego,  originator  of  its  psychical  states, 
with  a  spontaneity  unexplained,  which  is  not  a  capri- 
cious, but  a  rational  spontaneity. 

So-called  motives,  to  which  so  often  attaches  a 
suspicion  of  physical  force,  if  understood  to  be  rea- 
....   .      ..    sons,  have  their  place    in  the  realm   of 

"Motives"  ^ 

rational,  not  spontaneity.  But  to  give  **  motives  "  the 
physical.  significance  of  physical  impulse  is  to  pass 
from  the  spatial  to  the  non-spatial,  to  carry  the  law 
of  the  persistence  of  force  into  the  realm  of  Mind, 
to  bridge  the  gulf  between  spirit  and  matter  with  a 
pure  assumption. 

To  place  one  psychical  state  behind  another,  and 

physical  states  behind  the  psychical,  is  not  to  account 

for  that  nature  of  the  mind,  by  virtue  of 

No  endless     ^j^j^h  it  marshals  or  originates  states  of 

regress.  " 

which  it  is  permanent  Subject  and  Cause. 
Hume  could  never  catch,  as  he  affirmed,  the  Ego  or 
Self  without  some  perception,*  and  then  could  ob- 

*  Forgetting,  as  Dr.  Momerie  suggests,  that  he  had  a  self  to  catch. 


Ethical  Grounds,  169 


serve  nothing  else  save  the  perception.  **  But," 
says  Hoffding,  "  Hume  could  not  see  the  wood  for 
the  trees."     He  searches  in  the  wrong  place. 

"The  nature  of  the  Ego  is  manifested  in  the  combination  of  the 
sensations,  ideas,  and  feelings,  and  in  the  forms  and  laws  of  this  com- 
bination. .  .  .  He  offends  against  actual  psychological  experience 
when  he  declares  mockingly  that  '  setting  aside  some  few  metaphy- 
sicians,' the  rest  of  mankind  are  nothing  but  bundles,  or  collections 
of  perceptions,  which  succeed  each  other  with  inconceivable  rapidity 
and  in  a  constant  current.  He  overlooks  the  inner  link  between 
these  conscious  elements,  which  enables  them  to  become  elements 
of  one  and  the  same  consciousness,  and  not  of  several  consciousnesses. 
And  yet  he  must  have  been  of  course  led  to  ask  what  holds  the  con- 
scious elements  together,  and  makes  them  into  a  bundle  ?  "  * 

Hume  lost  sight  of  this  initiating  combining  force, 
in  his  sole  regard  for  the  individual  components  of 
the  bundle.  And  he  confessed  that  for  him  it  was 
too  hard  a  problem  to  show  how  these  percep- 
tions, assumed  to  be  independent,  could  be  bridged 
together. 

It  is  necessary  for  ethics  to  make  this  excursion 
into  the  realm  of  psychology,  to  meet  this  attempt  \ 
to  break  up  the  unity  of  the  mind,  and  to  rescue  the 
soul's  unity  before  contending  for  its  initiative 
power.  The  unity  of  the  mind  or  its  synthesis,  as 
Hoffding  points  out,  is,  indeed,  hidden  from  us,  is 
not  absolute,  is  always  **  relative  or  struggling,"  but 
it  is  a  real  unity.  The  essence  of  the  Self  is,  then, 
that  of  a  capacity  for  development  in  the  realization 
of  an  end  or  ideal,  and  as  the  Subject  of  its  changing 
states  is  capable  of  a  rational  spontaneity. 

"^  Psychology^  p.  137. 


1 70  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


Liberty,  then,  is  not  a  blind  act  of  choice,  a  lib- 
erty of   indifference,  a  chance   blow   delivered   by 
will.     The  free  preference  of  one  end  to 

Liberty  not  t  •        1  r  1      • 

blind  choice,  another  IS  that  of  a  person,  a  being  en- 
dowed with  reason,  who  in  the  act  of 
selection  of  the  end,  compares  two  or  more  ideas 
which  are  present  at  the  same  moment  in  the  mind. 

To  act  in  accordance  with  concepts  or  ideals  may 
be  said  to  be  a  determination  of  the  will,  but  it  is 
the  self-determining  of  a  person  who  reflects,  com- 
pares, and  values.  The  capacity  to  act  thus  under 
the  guidance  of  reason  is  the  true  liberty.  It  is  to 
act  with  an  end  in  view,  and  if  the  end  is  a  base 
one,  it  has  influenced  the  will's  decision,  because  the 
agent  has,  in  his  comparison  of  one  idea  with  an- 
other, preferred  the  end  pursued  as  in  his  view  the 
better.  It  is  inconceivable  that  any  person  not  de- 
prived of  reason,  not  made  bankrupt  of  conscience 
through  long  courses  of  evil  conduct  and  a  descent 
towards  animalism,  could  prefer  a  thing  because  it 
is  "  worse."  The  inferior,  the  worse,  can  never  be 
an  end  preferred,  and  to  suppose  this  is  to  annul 
Will  itself.  It  is,  as  Dr.  Martineau  suggests,  to 
attribute  persuasion  to  dissuasion,  and  speak  of  in- 
firmity as  force.  "  Conscience  is  the  knowledge 
with  one's  self  of  the  better  and  worse." 

To  elect  the  bad  for  itself  alone  is  to  cease  to  pos- 
sess a  conscience,  to  abdicate  reason,  to  be  less  than 
human.  One  may  seem  to  choose  the  worse  for  its 
own  sake,  but  no  person,  not  wholly  lapsed  into  irra- 
tionality, can  prefer  misery  to  happiness.     The  most 


Ethical  Grounds,  171 


abandoned  criminal  must,  if  retaining  a  spark  of 
reason  and  conscience,  prefer  the  end  which  seems 
to  him  the  better.  The  guilt  lies  in  unreflecting 
surrender  to  sense  and  passion,  in  not  rising  by 
thought  above  false  concepts  to  true  concepts  of 
good. 

As  Paulsen  concludes,  the  freedom  of  the  will, 
apart  from  metaphysical  obscurities,  consists  in  the 
capacity  to  order  one's  life  independently  of  all 
sensuous  impulses  and  allurements,  in  accordance 
with  reason  and  conscience,  toward  a  higher  end. 

The  word  "  nature  "  or  "  character  "  is,  however, 
seized  upon  by  the  false  determinism,  and  the  cham- 
pion of  liberty,  in  using  either  term,  is  leaning  of 
supposed,  like  Hamlet,  to  have  lost  his  "nature "or 
own  sword,  and  to  take  that  of  Laertes,  or  ^  ^^^^  *'^' 
the  Determinism  of  Necessity.  The  "  nature "  is 
not,  however,  a  determining  mass  lying  back  of  the 
act  of  choice.  It  is  rather  the  uniform  mode  of  be- 
havior. The  "  nature "  has  been  constituted  by 
these  acts  of  decision,  or  more  strictly  is  a  term 
which  expresses  the  uniformity  of  choice.  The 
agent  chooses  to-day  and  to-morrow  and  hereafter 
in  a  uniform  manner,  and  we  style  it  the  man's  na- 
ture. This  manner  of  acting  may,  without  being 
inconsistent  with  freedom,  have  its  influence  upon 
future  decisions,  but  the  nature  itself  is  dependent 
upon  previous  choices  for  its  being  here  at  all.  To 
say  that  the  nature  is  an  antecedent  which  compels 
the  decision,  is  only  to  say  that  the  freedom  of  yes- 
terday is  a  cause  of  the  freedom  of  to-morrow.     We 


1 72  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief. 


cut,  but  do  not  untie,  the  Gordian  knot  by  asserting 
that  physical  or  psychical  causes,  being  antecedent 
to  this  nature,  have  constituted  it  as  a  part  of  the 
chain  of  determinism,  and  that  all  acts  must  be  gov- 
erned by  it.  That  is  simply  to  say,  without  proof, 
that  the  nature  of  the  mind  does  not  permit  any 
free  decision.  The  "  nature  "  of  the  man  must  be 
rescued  from  the  physical  implication,  and  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  manner  of  acting,  illustrated  by  the 
prior  free  decisions. 

Thus,  about  the  nature  and  function  of  the  self 
surges  the  warfare,  not  only  over  the  problem  of 
Knowledge  and  Reality,  but  over  the  problem  of 
Morality  as  well.  But  if  the  Ego  stands  unresolved 
into  its  states  or  experiences,  and  is  always  there  as 
a  prior  fact,  a  permanent  unity  having  the  power  of 
rational  initiative,  we  may  say  that  the  battle  for 
freedom  is  won. 

And  in  fact.  Necessary    Determinism  inevitably 

leads  to  the  Indeterminism  which  it  would  evade. 

To  explain  any  psychical  state  by  an  an- 

Necessary  ,   ^  V  .       ,  1         •       1 

Determinism  tcccdent  psychical  or  physical  state,  is  to 
disguised  In-       |.   cause   behind   cause   forever.      It   is 

determinism.  ^  . 

either  to  affirm  that  the  regression  of 
causation  is  infinite,  and  thus  to  remove  the  neces- 
sity to  such  remoteness  as  to  make  necessity  vanish, — 
which  lands  us  in  indeterminism,  as  Dr.  F.  C.  S. 
Schiller*  has  pointed  out, — or  it  is  to  affirm  that 
there  is  a  First  Cause  who  is  unconditioned  by  any- 

*  Riddles  of  the  Sphinx,  Appendix. 


Ethical  Grounds,  1 73 


thing  outside  or  within  his  consciousness.  For  if 
He  is  conditioned  by  any  motives,  we  but  erect  a 
Deity  above  him,  and  thus  renew  the  infinite  re- 
gressus,  and  again  land  in  indeterminism. 

The  identification  of  the  self  with  the  character  is 
inadmissible.  The  feeling  is  invincible  that  the  self 
forms  and  possesses  the  character,  and  that,  other- 
wise, no  change  of  character  could  be  achieved.  * 
But  reformation  of  character  is  an  every-day  fact, 
and  Professor  Upton  rightly  says : 

"  In  every  moral  crisis  of  a  man's  life  he  rises  in  the  act  of  moral 
choice  above  his  own  character,  envisages  it,  and  passes  moral  judg- 
ment on  the  springs  of  action  or  desire  which  he  feels  present  within 
him  ;  and  it  is  because  a  man's  true  self  can  thus  transcend  and  judge 
his  own  character,  that  genuine  moral  freedom  and  moral  responsi- 
bility become  probable  and  actual," 

If,  then,  man  as  a  free  personality  is  by  virtue  of 
that  freedom  capable  of  an  ethical  character,  and 
shares  the  nature  of  God,  the  free  personal  Ground 
of  all  being,  then  the  ethical  nature  of  man  must 
find  its  explanation  in  the  ethical  nature  of  God.  f 

The  history  of  human  progress  is  the  history  of  the 
development  of  moral  ideals,  and  with  them,  of  the 
sense  of  obligation  to  surrender  life  and 
conduct  to  their  authority.  The  Moral  "^^hiltory! 
ideals  have  been  the  guiding  stars  be- 
neath which  all  peoples  have  pursued  their  march. 
Lured  onward  by  their  light,  humanity  has  advanced 
to  nobler  conceptions  of  the  right  and  the  good. 

*  Note  III.  t  Note  IV. 


1 74  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


Upon  these  ideals  have  ancient  peoples  built  up 
their  societies,  politics,  arts,  and  literatures.  No 
theory  of  Morals  is  necessary  before  man  can  act 
morally.  Morals  are  simple  acts  of  behavior  in 
obedience  to  the  emperor  within  the  soul  who  de- 
clares that  some  things  are  right  and  other  things 
are  wrong,  and  the  sanctions  of  right  and  wrong,  as 
human  culture  has  advanced,  have  been  found  in  the 
favor  or  disapproval  of  a  Power  which  is  above, 
making  for  Righteousness.  In  this  progress,  Morals 
and  Religion  have  been  inseparable.  The  former 
find  more  and  more  clearly  their  sanctions  in  the 
latter. 

If  Religion  has  been  at  times  immoral,  it  was  be- 
cause Morality  was  low,  and  Morality  was  low 
because  the  ideals  were  but  dimly  apprehended. 
Religion  and  Morality  have  marched  together  from 
the  low  to  the  higher,  reacting  upon  each  other, 
both  striving  towards  the  Ultimate  Good,  the  Ethical 
Ground  of  all  Being.  The  watches  in  the  pockets 
of  a  thousand  persons  may  not  be  in  exact  accord 
with  the  sun,  but  they  are  veritable  guides,  and  be- 
come safer  for  direction,  as  they  approximate  a  con- 
formity with  the  march  of  the  sun.  As  the  soul  itself 
of  man  is  a  capacity  for  development,  more  and  more 
realizing  the  unity  which  has  been  implicit  from  the 
first,  so  the  moral  capacity  explicates  in  experience 
of  life  the  uplifting  ideals  which  have  been  latent 
in  the  heaven-born  soul,  and  which  make  their 
sovereignty  felt,  in  increasingly  higher  and  nobler 
imperatives. 


Ethical  Grounds,  175 


Renan  would  not  surrender  these  ideals,  and  real- 
ized that  if  the  man  of  Evolution  is  lineally  a 
''good-natured  gorilla"  with  his  '*  chi-  ^he Ethical 
meras,"  his  moral  faith  is  necessary  and  longings  of 
conducive  to  his  progress.     But  if  these  ™*"* 

so-called  "  chimeras  "  are  necessary  to  the  fulfilment 
of  a  purposive  Idea  in  human  life,  they  cannot  be 
chimeras,  but  realities  of  reason,  and  Religion  and 
Morals  alike  have  their  ground  in  man's  Divine 
constitution. 

The  feeling  that  we  owe  homage  to  Goodness 
and  must  yield  to  the  mandates  of  the  Ideal  which 
beckons  us  on,  is  not  then  derived  from  the  approval 
or  disapproval  of  society,  nor — it  may  be  added — 
from  the  approval  or  disapproval  of  God,  but  from 
our  subjective  conviction  that  Goodness  is  in  itself 
of  authoritative  worth.  The  approval  of  society 
sometimes  reinforces  the  sense  of  duty,  but  many  of 
the  moral  heroes  of  the  race  have  heard  a  voice  in 
the  conscience  calling  them  to  defy  the  authority  of 
public  sentiment.  No  plebiscite  can  make  anything 
right,  nor  could  a  command  of  God  make  right  what 
conscience — which  is  God  immanent  in  the  soul — 
has  decided  to  be  wrong.  Any  supposed  mandate 
from  Heaven  which  conflicts  with  the  ideal  of  con- 
science, is  without  surpassing  authority,  and  will 
sooner  or  later  be  explained  away. 

"  Truth  is  within  ourselves :  it  takes  no  rise 
From  outward  things,  whate'er  you  may  believe. 
There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all 
Where  truth  abides  in  fullness." 


176  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  Philosophy  of  Religion  is  the  Philosophy  of 
the  Ideal ;  the  feeling  of  '*  what  ought  to  be,"  in  dis- 
tinction from  "  what  is,"  is  an  ultimate  principle  of 
the  soul,  as  unexplained  as  the  consciousness  of  self. 
The  rise  and  progress  of  knowledge,  and  the  rise  and 
progress  of  Morals,  are  alike  the  self-development  of  a 
capacity  derived  from  God  whose  nature  man  shares. 
Starting  with  a  conviction  that  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  truth,  we  are  forced  by  experience  of  life  and  the 
study  of  our  own  mental  constitution,  to  arrive  at 
more  and  more  clear  apprehension  of  what  things 
are  true.  Starting  also  with  a  belief  in  the  obli- 
gation to  accept  Goodness  as  the  end  of  being,  man 
gradually  extricates  himself  from  claims  of  unworthy 
conceptions  of  the  moral  ideals,  and  amidst  the  re- 
lations, and  in  the  experience,  of  life,  he  is  ever 
ascending  to  higher  conceptions  of  absolute  Good- 
ness. 

The  concrete  ideals  revealed  in  the  lives  of  great 
and  noble  souls,  attract  us  upward,  but  the  best  and 
holiest  of  men,  though  constituting  for  us  who  are 
below  them  in  excellence,  an  ideal  of  worth,  are  yet 
discontented  with  themselves,  and  are  urged  by 
Divine  impulse  beyond  their  present  attainments  of 
goodness  towards  an  unrealized  but  commanding 
Ideal  which  haunts  the  soul,  and  thrills  it  with  desire 
and  hope.  The  capacity  of  becoming  more  and 
more  conscious  of  God,  as  the  fulfilment  of  the 
Right  or  Good,  is  the  birthright  of  man,  the  Divine 
endowment  of  his  soul. 

Even  in  the  history  of  sensitive  life   we  find  a 


Ethical  Grounds.  177 


disposition  to  consider  every  sensation  as  part  of  a 
republic  of  sensations,  and  in  every  enjoyment  some 
indication  of  an  ordered  realm  of  experi- 

...  .      *  1  Ideals  point 

ence,  wherem  not  personal  pleasure  alone  to  a  future 
is  to  be  sought,  but  other  and  higher  wel-  perfected 
fares,  which  are  parts  of  a  Spiritual  order. 
The  savage,  whose  language  is  of  the  rudest  nature, 
uses  words  not  as  mere  ejaculations  produced  by 
sensations  not  arranged  in  mental  order.  Words  are 
used  as  having  relations  in  thought,  as  constituting 
language  which  postulates  an  ordered  realm,  in  which 
his  intelligence  is  associated  with  other  intelligences. 
This  intercourse  of  intelligences  postulates  a  realm 
of  knowledge  in  which  exist  universal  truths,  in 
consciousness  of  which  man  is  raised  above  animal 
life.  In  similar  wise  the  moral  ideals  are  not  insu- 
lated feelings,  within  men  apart  from  each  other, 
having  no  common  end,  but  are  flashes  of  dawn 
which  herald  the  rising  sun,  holy  presages  of  a  Spirit- 
ual kingdom  in  which  infinite  Goodness  is  eternally 
regnant. 

If  Mr.  Burke  could  reproach  a  writer  for  indicting 
a  whole  nation,  the  Philosophy  of  Religion  can  justly 
reproach  a  class  of  thinkers  for  indicting  pessimism 
the  Universe  itself.  The  presence  of  moral  or  despair  of 
and  physical  evil  in  the  world  affords  an  *^*  ^  **^' 
opportunity  to  challenge  the  ethical  character  of  its 
Creator.  Into  a  discussion  of  this  mystery  of  Sin 
the  writer  is  not  disposed  to  venture.  Such  a  dis- 
cussion may  be  left  to  Theologians.  But  the  author- 
ity of  the  Ethical  ideals,  and  the  receding  into  the 


1 78  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


future  of  their  perfect  fulfilment,  seem  to  doom  man 
to  a  pursuit  of  the  unattainable,  as  the  mariner  seeks 
the  land  which  is  merely  a  cloud  on  the  horizon.  The 
well  poised  mind,  however,  discerns  in  the  evolution 
of  the  world  a  movement  towards  an  equilibrium  not 
fncompatible  with  an  endless  progress  in  goodness. 
If  to  be  a  finite,  is  to  be  a  sinful  being,  then  Sin  will 
always  exist.  But  Sin  is  not  to  be  explained  as  im- 
perfection merely — it  may  vanish  from  the  Universe 
and  still  an  endless  advance  towards  the  Ideal  of 
absolute  Goodness  is  conceivable. 

Meanwhile,  the  reply  to  the  pessimists  may  be 
made,  that  the  tragic  facts  of  human  experience  are 
not  an  unmixed  evil ;  the  apparent  discord  between 
the  present  state  and  the  ideal  state  of  man  gives  rise 
to  the  noblest  sacrifices  and  most  heroic  deeds,  with- 
out which  life  would  be  deprived  of  much  of  its 
grandeur  and  virtue.  Truth  compels  us  to  admit 
however,  that  there  is  much  to  oppress  the  mind 
and  heart,  and  tax  the  faith,  in  both  the  allotments 
of  life  and  the  aspects  of  Nature. 

We  exist  in  the  midst  of  cosmic  and  human  re- 
lations, can  gain  no  perfectly  commanding  view  of 
the  march  of  destiny ;  but  man  cherishes  the  con- 
viction that  from  higher  points  of  view,  to  be  here- 
after reached,  much  of  the  mystery  of  the  world  will 
be  explained.  Christianity  fosters  neither  a  roseate 
optimism,  tolerant  of  moral  evil,  incapable  of  noble 
indignation  against  wrong,  nor  does  it  encourage  the 
pessimism  which  discerns  in  history  the  incessant 
rolling  of  the  stone  of  Sisyphus.    Neither  Goethe  nor 


Ethical  Grounds.  1 79 


Schopenhauer  have  set  forth  a  true  philosophy  of 
hfe,  though  both  have  seized  truths  which  they  have 
exaggerated.  Meanwhile,  pessimism  contains  within 
itself  elements  which  contradict  each  other,  viz. :  a 
demand  for  Reality,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  de- 
nial of  the  possible  existence  of  an  Ideal  Good.  It 
is  not  difficult  to  see  that  a  kind  of  hysteria  has 
seized,  in  our  day,  the  minds  of  many,  caused  in  part 
by  increased  pressure  to  which  life  is  subjected  in 
the  pursuit  of  the  prizes  of  the  world,  in  part  by  the 
rapid  progress  of  the  sciences  of  Nature  and  Mind, 
demanding  fundamental  readjustments  of  thought, 
in  part  by  the  morbid  egoism  which  impels  many  to 
regard  their  personal  happiness  as  paramount  to  all 
the  interests  of  humanity  around  them,  and  in  part 
also  through  the  want  of  moral  fibre  and  courage  to 
face  the  difficulty  that  comes  from  the  Capuan  ease 
and  self-indulgence  which  riches  secure.  The  ages 
of  heroism  and  higher  warfare  are  not  those  in  which 
the  temper  of  pessimism  has  reigned.  It  is  in  more 
prosperous  times,  when  the  physical  welfare  of  so- 
ciety is  most  assured,  and  the  long  reign  of  peace 
between  nations  leaves  mankind  free  to  exaggerate 
the  value  of  personal  domination  and  gratification, 
that  the  malady  of  discontent  and  scepticism  fastens 
upon  many  minds,  and  gloomy  views  of  the  con- 
dition and  destiny  of  the  World  are  indulged. 

Christianity,  with  the  instinct  of  the  wise  physician, 
takes  account  of  moral  evil,  of  the  failure  of  man  to 
realize  his  ideals  in  the  conduct  of  life.  It  reveals 
a  Redemptive  influence  which   is   included  in   the 


1 80  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


purposive  evolution  of  the  world.     Man,  whose  con- 
fession is  uttered  by  the  Latin  poet  "  probo  meliora 

deteriora  sequor,"  is  by  Christianity  helped 
thls^desplir.*^  ^^  ^^^^  above  the  pessimism  of   self-pity, 

above  the  mental  weakness  of  ascribing  all 
moral  evil  to  God,  to  frankly  discern  that  in  his 
misused  prerogative  of  liberty  he  is  the  chief  cause 
of  his  own  moral  defeat  and  distress.  Exalted  more 
and  more  in  the  pursuit  of  these  moral  ideals,  man 
becomes  conscious  of  a  spiritual  power  to  "  rise 
above  the  dead  self  to  higher  things  "  inspired  by 
the  life  and  self-sacrifice  of  the  Founder  of  Christ- 
ianity. This  hierarchy  of  Ethical  ideals  which  is 
clearly  discerned  in  the  historic  development,  points 
evermore  forward  to  the  final  establishment  and  un- 
veiling of  a  kingdom  of  Goodness  in  which  exalted 
spirits  are  citizens  in  full  communion  with  Him  who 
is  the  moral  and  spiritual  impulse  of  the  whole 
progress  of  the  race. 

Pessimism  will  never  be  able  for  a  long  time  to 
congeal  the  currents  of  life,  or  chill  faith  in  the 
triumph  of  Goodness,  and  can  be  regarded  as  having 
mostly  a  pathological  significance.  History  affords 
abundant  proof  that  they  who  live,  not  in  abstract- 
ions, but  an  earnest  and  unselfish  life  in  efforts  to 
ameliorate  the  woes  and  sorrows  of  humanity,  are 
the  most  cheerful  among  men,  and  retain  unshaken 
faith  in  absolute  Goodness.  The  greater  the  trials 
the  moral  heroes  of  the  race  have  been  called  to 
face,  the  higher  has  been  the  joy  of  their  spirits, 
the   clearer  has  been   their  vision   of   God.     It  is 


Ethical  Grounds.  1 8 1 


through  unselfish  devotion  to  human  welfare,  and 
not  through  the  speculations  of  the  intellect,  that 
man  gains  the  profound  conviction  of  the  worth  of 
life,  and  the  assurance  that  the  course  of  the  world 
is  ordered  by  infinite  Goodness  and  Love. 

NOTE    I. 

Dr.  Martineau,  in  Study  of  Religion^  quotes  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  a  work  of  Michelet,  viz.:  Origines  du 
droit  Frangais  cherchees  dans  les  Symboles  at  Formulas 
du  Droit  Universal.  Introduction  civ.  cv.  Paris,  1837. 
"  I  have  studied  tha  symbols  embodying  the  human  sen- 
timent of  Rights,  under  the  two  points  of  view  which 
embrace  their  infinite  diversity,  viz.:  their  age  and  thair 
Nationality.  Still,  however  great  thair  variations,  Unity 
prevails.  If  in  the  secondary  forms  the  difference  is 
great,  it  disappears  in  the  most  important. 

"  It  is  an  impressive  spectacle  to  see  tha  chief  legal 
symbols  reappearing  in  all  countries  throughout  all  ages. 
There  are  few  nations  in  which  we  do  not  find  the  mar- 
riage rite  by  mutual  purchase  (co-emptio),  by  the  sac- 
rificial cake  (confarreatio),  and  conveyance  of  estate  by 
delivery  of  a  straw,  of  tenancy  or  measurement  of  land 
by  throw  of  a  missile  and  riding  the  bounds,  and  alliance 
by  libation  of  blood. 

"  These  symbols,  never  broken  in  transmission  but  to 
reappear  further  on,  remind  one  of  the  Zend  or  Sanskrit 
words  which,  though  without  representatives  in  tha  Ger- 
man, turn  up  again  in  cognate  or  derivative  tongues,  in 
the  Greek,  for  instance,  or  the  English. 

"  In  truth,  except  to  one  who  regards  the  human  race 
as  the  great  family  of  God  the  central  unity  of  his  creat- 


1 82  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief. 


ive  work  and  purpose,  there  must  be  something  magical 
and  dismaying  to  the  mind  in  alighting  upon  these  voices 
which,  out  of  hearing  of  each  other,  yet  answer  so  ex- 
actly from  the  Indus  to  the  Thames. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  features  of  our  age,  that  humanity  has 
begun  to  recognize  a  harmony  in  its  diversity  of  language, 
law  and  manners,  and  to  find  in  it,  its  own  self-conscious 
unity.  This  sense  of  humanity  as  one,  /'.  ^.,  as  Divine,  is 
to  me  the  surest  pledge  of  our  religious  reawakening. 

"  To  me  it  was  a  sublime  experience,  when  first  I  heard 
this  universal  chorus.  So  world-wide  an  accord,  if  sur- 
prising in  languages,  was  profoundly  touching  to  me  in 
the  expressions  of  Right.  Reversing  the  sceptical  infer- 
ences of  Montaigne,  who  ferreted  out  so  curiously  the 
usages  of  all  nations  to  detect  their  moral  discordances, 
I  was  filled  with  admiration  at  their  harmony.  A  miracle 
opened  on  my  perception.  From  my  little  momentary 
existence  I  saw,  I  touched,  unworthy  though  I  be,  the 
eternal  communion  of  the  human  race  " 

NOTE    II. 

To  do  justice  to  Dr.  Martineau,  his  completing  words 
are  here  given  :  "  The  dualism  of  perception,  which  sets 
ourselves  in  the  face  of  an  objective  world,  and  the 
dualism  of  Conscience  which  sets  us  in  the  face  of  an 
objective  higher  mind,  are  perfectly  analogous  in  their 
grounds.  The  religious  intimation  is  not  contained  in 
the  mere  fact,  that  there  is  a  graduated  worth  among  our 
inward  springs  of  action  ;  but  in  the  further  fact,  that 
the  superiors  among  them  lay  claim  to  our  will  with  an 
authority  that  is  above  us,  and  that  presents  them  as 
mere  delegates  of  itself. 

"  For    our   aesthetic    faculty   also    there   is   given   a 


Ethical  Grounds.  183 


differential  scale  of  beauty,  higher  and  lower  ;  but  here 
the  gradations  remain  upon  the  level  of  ideal  facts,  and 
do  not  rise  into  imperative  Law,  subjecting  us  to  a  trans- 
cendent relation  that  asks  the  sacrifice  of  ourselves. 

"  It  is  the  specific  sense  of  duty  that  constitutes  a  dual 
relation,  and  cannot  belong  to  a  soul  in  vacuo,  and  must 
be  forever  a  disconsolate  and  wandering  illusion,  till  it 
rests  with  Him  to  whom  the  allegiance  is  due.  .  .  . 
I  care  not  whether  this  be  called  an  immediate  vision 
of  God  in  the  experiences  of  conscience  ;  or  whether  it 
be  taken  as  an  inference  drawn  from  the  data  they  supply. 
It  is  the  truth  contained  in  them  :  with  one  man  it  may 
be  only  implicitly  felt  in  their  solemn  and  mystic 
character  ;  with  another,  explicitly  and  immediately  seen 
emerging  from  them  as  they  come,  and  making  him  the 
Seer  of  God,  rather  than  the  reasoner  about  him.  In 
any  case,  the  constitution  of  our  moral  nature  is  unintel- 
ligible, except  as  living  in  response  to  an  objective  Per- 
fection pervading  the  Universe  with  Holy  Law."  * 

NOTE  III. 

"  Inner  *  nature  *  and  outward  circumstances  are,  as  it 
were,  a  raw  material  out  of  which  the  individual  is  to  create 
a  character — a  plastic  material  which,  like  the  sculptor 
he  has  to  subdue  to  his  formative  idea."  Professor 
James  Seth.     Study  of  Ethical  Frificiples,  p.  358. 

NOTE  IV. 

Determinism  as  usually  understood,  strictly  analyzed, 
is  pure  materialism.  Place  one  psychical  state  behind 
another  to  infinity,  there  must  be  a  subject  of  the  states. 

Determinists  of  the  school  of  necessity  cannot  dis- 
*  Study  of  Religion.,  vol.,  ii,  pp.  27-29. 


1 84  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


pense  with  moral  obligation,  but  if  all  phenomena  are  to 
be  resolved  into  molecular  action,  it  is  unscientific  to 
believe  in  freedom,  right,  or  obligation.  The  disastrous 
influence  of  Physical  Determinism  in  politics,  economics, 
and  morals,  it  is  to  be  feared,  will  for  a  decade  or  two 
be  illustrated  until  it  shall  be  demonstrated  that  society 
cannot  be  maintained  on  any  theory  of  Physical  De- 
terminism. 

Physical  Determinism  is,  as  Professor  Secretan  urges, 
only  "  an  hypothesis  " — a  method  of  science.  Meanwhile 
science  cannot  disprove  the  facts  of  human  freedom  and 
moral  obligation,  which  cannot  in  thought  be  separated. 
The  return  of  Mr.  Tyndall  to  the  Greek  idea  of  the 
"Power  of  Becoming"  reveals  the  consciousness  that  the 
physical  chain  must  have  a  beginning  and  that  beginning 
is  the  initiative  of  a  Power  which  is  free  and  intelligent. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Conservation  of  Energy  cannot  be 
used  to  disprove  the  existence  of  liberty.  Physicists 
have  shown  that  the  material  atom  exerts  different 
amounts  of  resistance  to  pressure,  that  its  capacity  is  in- 
exhaustible, and  that  it  is  thus  impossible  to  show  that 
the  sum  total  of  energy  in  the  Cosmos  is  always  the 
same.  That  the  human  will  acting  upon  matter  cannot 
add  to  the  sum  of  Cosmic  force,  has  not  and  probably 
never  can  be  demonstrated.  "  The  law  of  the  conserva- 
tion of  energy  signifies,  in  metaphysical  reference,  only, 
the  unchangeableness  of  the  actual  World-Will  on  the 
side  of  its  intensity  ;  this  law  is,  however,  purely  formal, 
and  only  teaches  us  :  if  this  quantum  of  mechanical 
energy  is  converted  into  another  form,  e.  g.,  into  heat, 
f/ien,  it  will  furnish  such  and  such  a  quantum  of  heat."* 

Meanwhile  Determinism  must  supply  links  to  the 
*  Von  Hartman,  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious. 


Ethical  Grounds.  185 


Physical  Chain.  Three  gulfs,  according  to  Secretan, 
seven,  according  to  Du  Bois-Reymond,  are  to  be 
bridged.  I  quote  from  Secretan's  La  Civilisation  et  La 
CroyancCy  p.  167. 

I.  C'est,  d'abord,  Torigine  du  mouvement,  question 
importune,  qu'  on  s'  efforce  d'  eluder  en  classant  le  mouve- 
ment au  nombre  des  donnees  premieres,  ce  que  fait  du 
pretendu  monisme  un  dualisme  inavoue. 

II.  C'est  ensuite  le  passage  de  la  matiere  minerale  k  la 
matiere  organique,  la  constitution,  la  specification,  la  re- 
production des  organismes  par  le  jeu  des  forces  physiques 
et  chimiques  sans  plan  donne,  sans  idee  rectrice. 

III.  C  est  1 '  apparition  du  sentiment,  de  la  conscience, 
qu  'il  faudrait  definir  en  termes  de  mecanique  ;  c  'est  la 
finalite  dont  on  ne  pent  plus  nier  la  presence  et  Taction 
dans  les  etres  intelligents  ;  c'  est  la  reflexion  sur  soi 
meme,  la  religion,  la  curiosite  scientifique  ! 

Pour  justifier  la  these  materialiste,  il  ne  suffit  point  de 
montrer  que  toutes  ces  choses  ne  se  produisent  que  sous 
la  condition  de  certains  mouvements  moleculaires,  il 
faudrait  resoudre  distinctement  toutes  ces  choses  en 
mouvements  moleculaires  ;  1*  adepte  le  plus  sincere  et  le 
plus  penetre  de  la  conception  mecanique  de  1'  univers 
sait  parfaitement  que  la  science  n'y  parviendra  jamais. 
II  n'a  done  reellement  point  d'  enchainement,  point  de 
systeme  ;  les  divers  ordres  de  phenomenes  ne  sont  unis 
dans  son  esprit  que  par  des  affirmations  incomprehen- 
sibles. 

And  Mr.  Balfour  remarks  in  Foundations  of  Belief 
(page  20)  :  "  It  is  sufficient  to  remind  the  reader  that  on 
the  naturalistic  view,  at  least,  free  will  is  an  absurdity, 
and  that  those  who  hold  that  view  are  bound  to  believe 
that  every  decision  at  which  mankind  have  arrived,  and 


1 86  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


every  consequent  action  which  they  have  performed,  was. 
implicitly  determined  by  the  quantity  and  distribution 
of  the  various  forms  of  matter  and  energy  which  pre- 
ceded the  birth  of  the  solar  system.  The  fact,  no  doubt, 
remains  that  every  individual,  while  balancing  between 
two  courses,  is  under  the  inevitable  impression  that  he  is 
at  liberty  to  pursue  either,  and  that  it  depends  upon 
'himself  and  himself  alone,  'himself*  as  distinguished 
from  his  character,  his  desires,  his  surroundings,  and  his 
antecedents,  which  of  the  offered  alternatives  he  will 
elect  to  pursue. 

"  I  do  not  know  that  any  explanation  has  been  pro- 
posed of  what,  on  the  naturalistic  hypothesis,  we  must 
regard  as  a  singular  illusion." 

(Page  21.)  .  .  .  "The  spectacle  of  all  mankind 
suffering  under  the  delusion  that  in  their  decision  they 
are  free,  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  nothing  of 
the  kind,  must  certainly  appear  extremely  ludicrous  to 
any  superior  observer,  were  it  possible  to  conceive,  on 
the  naturalistic  hypothesis,  that  such  observers  should 
exist  ;  and  the  comedy  could  not  be  otherwise  than 
greatly  relieved  and  heightened  by  the  performances  of 
the  small  sect  of  philosophers  who,  knowing  perfectly  as 
an  abstract  truth  that  freedom  is  an  absurdity,  yet  in 
moments  of  balance  and  deliberation  fall  into  the  vul- 
gar error,  as  if  they  were  savages  or  idealists." 

(Page  25.)  "  No  doubt  this  conflict  between  a  creed 
which  claims  intellectual  assent  and  emotions  which 
have  their  root  and  justification  in  beliefs  which  are 
deliberately  rejected,  is  greatly  mitigated  by  the  precious 
faculty  which  the  human  race  enjoys  of  quietly  ignoring 
the  logical  consequences  of  its  own  accepted  theories. 
»     .    ,     Nevertheless,   the    persistent   conflict   between 


Ethical  Grounds.  187 


•  that  which  is  thought  to  be  true,*  and  that  which  is  felt 
to  be  noble  and  of  good  report,  not  only  produces  a  sense 
of  moral  unrest  in  the  individual,  but  makes  it  impos- 
sible for  us  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  creed  which 
leads  to  such  results  is,  somehow,  unsuited  for  'such 
beings '  as  we  are  in  such  a  world  as  ours." 

M.  Secretan,  in  La  Croyance  et  la  Civilisation,  points  out 
the  disastrous  effect  of  such  deterministic  theories  when 
applied,  and  not  held  simply  in  the  closet,  upon  morals, 
politics,  and  economics. 

*  Naturalism  or  Determinism. 


CHAPTER  III. 


iESTHETICAL   GROUND. 


IF  the  belief  in  the  Divine  Reality  is  imperative 
for  the  satisfaction  of  the  Rational  and  Ethical 
impulses  of  the  soul  of  man,  not  less  imperative  is  that 
belief  for  the  explanation  and  fulfilment  of  the  ideals 
of  Beauty.  The  ^sthetical,  as  well  as  the  Ethical 
longings  of  the  soul,  reach  forth  towards  an  ideal  of 
perfection,  which,  in  noble  and  pleasurable,  but  un- 
satisfied and  progressive  effort,  man  strives  to  realize 
as  the  consummation  of  the  life  of  the  soul. 

That  man  possesses  these  ideals  of  the  Good  and 
the  Beautiful,  or  that  they  possess  him  with  more 
Comparative  intensity  as  he  advances  in  culture  amidst 
clearness  of  physical  and  social  conditions,  is  a  convic- 
^stheticri  tion  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  race, 
judgments.  That  these  ideals  are  the  impulses  to  pro- 
gress, can  be  explained  only  by  finding  their  origin 
in  the  Divine  endowment  of  man.  That  there  is  a 
Being  who  is  Reason  and  Goodness,  who  is  both  the 
impulse  and  goal  of  all  history,  it  is  a  necessity  of 

i88 


JEsthetical  Ground.  1 89 


thought  to  assume,  in  order  to  account  for  these 
ideal  energies  in  man's  progressive  life.  It  is,  how- 
ever, when  we  attempt  to  clear  the  idea  of  the 
Beautiful,  that  we  discern  its  uniqueness  and  find 
that  our  ^sthetical,  are  not  as  surely  determined  as 
our  Moral,  judgments. 

As  the  Ethical  Reason  declares  that  some  things 
are  right  and  others  are  wrong,  and  implicated  with 
this  feeling  is  the  imperative  of  the  **  ought,"  so  also 
the  iEsthetical  reason  declares  categorically  that 
some  things  are  beautiful  and  others  are  ugly,  and 
that  we  ought  to  prefer  the  beautiful  to  the  ugly. 
It  is  when  we  proceed  to  inquire  what  things  are 
right  or  wrong,  and  what  things  are  beautiful  or  the 
opposite,  that  we  discover  that  our  standards  .of 
Beauty  are  more  obscurely  discerned  than  our  Moral 
standards.  It  is  indeed  the  discipline  of  character 
to  determine  in  our  progressive  experience  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong.  But  an  extensive  list  of 
actions  of  determined  character  has  been  established, 
and  in  all  stages  of  Moral  progress,  theft,  falsehood, 
injustice,  are  held  by  public  opinion  to  be  injurious 
to  the  social  welfare,  and  condemned  by  the  Moral 
Reason.  While,  indeed,  the  larger  part  of  mankind 
is  guided  by  an  authoritative  feeling  in  pronounc- 
ing certain  acts  to  be  right  and  others  to  be  wrong, 
and  while  the  philosophy  of  Utility  fails  to  give 
satisfactory  reasons  for  Moral  judgments,  sending  us 
back  to  the  decisions  of  feeling,  the  race  has,  how- 
ever, in  its  acquired  experience  reached  moral  ver- 
dicts which  will  never  be  reversed.     Law,  Politics, 


190  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief. 


Commerce,  have  now  a  body  of  moral  precedents 
and  rules  which  have  an  assured  empire,  to  defy 
which,  would  imperil  the  validity  of  conscience  itself, 
and  would  compel  a  countermarch  of  civilization 
towards  barbarism.  These  Moral  verdicts  are  now 
firmly  grounded  in  reason.  But  our  verdicts  con- 
cerning the  Beautiful  in  Nature  or  Art,  rest  upon  a 
feeling  which  we  cannot  discern  to  be  as  clearly 
based  in  the  nature  of  things  or  reason.  As,  how- 
ever, in  the  sphere  of  Morals  we  say  the  good  ought 
to  be,  and  ought  to  be  sought  by  all  mankind,  so  the 
mind  affirms  that  the  Beautiful  ought  to  be,  and 
ought  to  be  realized  in  its  highest  Ideal. 

As  the  Moral  Ideal  is  not  merely  a  subjective  feel- 
ing, but  possesses  an  objective  and  universal  worth, 
so  we  are  confident  that  the  Beautiful  is 

The  Beauti-  in  r         1  •         •  1 

fuibothob-  not  wholly  a  state  of  subjective  pleasure 
jective  and     causcd  by  the  objects  we  perceive,  but  is 

subjective.  .  .  n  ,.  ,  ,   . 

somethmg  universally  valid,  something 
objective  in  things  called  beautiful ;  something  which 
reveals  the  infinite  Soul  of  the  world,  who  appeals 
to  the  soul  of  man. 

The  beauty  which  is  perceived  in  Nature  and  in 
Art,  is  the  concrete  manifestation   of  that   Divine 

Life  which  is  related  to  our  own  soul  life, 
manifesta-  and  whosc  csscncc  we  share.  The  Beauti- 
tion  of  Divine  f^l  jg  ^j^^jg  apprehended  as  both  subjective 

and  objective.  In  a  beautiful  landscape 
or  a  statue,  we  discern  the  presence  of  Life  sympa- 
thetic with  our  own.  The  subjective  aesthetic  de- 
light can    be  realized    only  when  the  human  soul 


^ St  he  tic  a  I  Ground.  191 

perceives — as  Professor  Ladd  expresses  it — "  a  joy- 
ous and  worthy  psychical  Hfe  in  the  object  declared 
to  be  beautiful."  In  the  act  of  perceiving  the 
beautiful  in  Nature  there  is — if  the  word  may  be 
permitted — an  inosculation  of  the  Divine  in  us,  with 
the  Divine  in  external  objects.  At  the  moment  of 
a  noble  enthusiasm,  we  apprehend  the  Infinite  within 
both  ourselves  and  animated  Nature. 

"  Est  Deus  in  nobis,  agitante  calescimus  illo." 

The  beautiful  is  not  then  wholly  a  subjective  feel- 
ing of  pleasure,  but  involves  an  appreciation  of 
Divine  Life  in  objects  regarded  as  beautiful.  If 
Nature  were  a  dead  mechanism,  it  could  not,  by  any 
projection  into  it  of  our  own  states  of  feeling,  offer 
to  us  any  objects  or  scenes  which  would  appear  to 
us  as  beautiful.  A  lifeless  form  may  still  seem 
beautiful  to  affection,  only  because  the  spirit  which 
has  left  it  is  still,  by  us,  associated  with  it.  The  fair 
pallid  face,  and  the  reposing  limbs,  still  speak  elo- 
quently of  life. 

Esthetic  fancy  cannot  be  active  before  that  which 
is  really  lifeless.  Even  the  wide  desert  becomes 
sublime,  because  we  ourselves  are  in  it  to  scan  it  with 
weary  eyes,  because,  also,  the  thought  of  the  toiling 
caravan  places  the  far-reaching  desolation  in  contrast 
with  the  living  traveller  who  braves  its  solitude. 

The  glacial  peak  of  the  Matterhorn  tells  of  the 
power  which  lifted  it,  the  cosmic  Agency  which 
animates  Creation,  whose  purpose  has  related  the 
cloud-capped  summits  to  circumjacent   plains,  and 


192  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


utters  forth  the  majesty  and  eternal  repose  of  the 
Creative  Spirit. 

The  sea  itself,  with  its  boundless  horizons,  and 
its  restless  waters  upon  which,  for  days,  no  sail  is 
seen,  offers  no  scene  of  death.  The  voyager  is  there 
upon  his  solitary  barque,  himself  a  living  soul,  and 
by  the  activity  of  his  imagination  perceiving  the 
soul  of  the  Infinite  in  the  sublime  energies  of  storm 
and  wave  around  him.  The  soul  of  Man  and  the 
Soul  in  nature  here  hold  communion. 

Science  assures  us  that  everything  in  Nature  is 
in  living  movement.  Matter  is  only  the  interac- 
tions of  soul-like  atoms.  What  we  term  matter  is  in 
the  last  analysis  only  the  manifestation  of  Will. 
Chemical  analysis  in  its  supreme  effort  arrives  at  no 
inert  dead  nature ;  forces  of  Spirit  keep  all  things 
in  a  state  of  inconceivable  activity.  The  Alps  which 
pierce  the  sky,  and  the  boulder  by  the  roadside,  alike 
attest  atomic  movement.  Like  man.  Nature  hasher 
expressions  of  face,  and  the  setting  sun,  the  heaving 
ocean,  the  Himalayan  peak,  stir  within  us  a  pro- 
found moral  emotion.  Our  feelings  of  the  beautiful 
and  sublime  attest  our  perception  of  the  reality  and 
opulence  of  Divine  Life  immanent  in  Nature. 

Ascending  from  what  we  denominate  inanimate 
Nature,  to  the  observation  of  animal  life,  we  discern 
The  Beauti-  ^"  ^^^  forms  a  higher  beauty,  and  in  the 
fui  in  living  human  form,  a  beauty  surpassing  that  of 
form..  animals,  for  though  virtue  and  genius  may 

be  absent,  yet  the  rays  of  moral  and  intellectual  life 
illumine  the  figures  of  men. 


jMsthetical  Ground.  193 


**It  has  been  lately  decided,"  says  Victor  Cherbuliez,  "in  an 
English  Club,  that  the  education  of  a  young  man  is  incomplete  un- 
til he  has  traversed  the  Alps  and  visited  Chamounix.  We  know  not 
vfhat  education  they  had  in  mind,  but  if  the  religious  culture  of  the 
soul  is  intended,  we  think  one  draws  nearer  to  God  in  contemplating 
the  Venus  de  Milo,  or  La  Joconde  of  Leonardo  Da  Vinci,  than  in 
scaling  Mont  Blanc  or  the  Jungfrau." 

The  rugged  form  and  homely  face  of  a  Socrates, 
a  Michael  Angelo,  or  a  Lincoln,  assume  a  great  moral 
beauty  when  their  souls  are  inspired  to  the  sacrifice 
of  fortune  and  life  for  the  welfare  of  humanity. 
The  face  wears  a  sublime  expression  and  the  figure 
becomes  majestic  when  having  reached  the  summits 
of  moral  greatness  men  attract  the  admiration  and 
love  of  mankind.  Physical  beauty  kindles  in  us  the 
expectation  of  finding  a  beauty  of  the  soul.  Why 
do  we  prefer  the  Venus  de  Milo  to  the  Venus  de 
Medici,  unless  the  latter  fails  to  reveal  as  much  soul 
as  the  former  seems  to  possess  ? 

Both  physical  and  moral  beauty  satisfy  only  in 
part ;  they  suggest  more  than  they  give  us ;  they 
point  to  a  higher  Beauty ;  they  beget 
within  us  infinite  longings  which  we  feel  suggests 
can  be  realized  only  by  communion  with  infinite  Per- 
the  universal  Soul,  who  unites  in  himself 
truth,  beauty,  and  goodness  in  perfection. 

The  Philosophy  of  Religion  has  a  profound  inter- 
est in  this  liberation,  from  vagueness  of  feeling,  of  the 
idea  of  the  Beautiful.  It  regards  it  as  arising  from  our 
own  state  of  pleasure,  and  as  also  having  an  objective 
validity  in  things  called  beautiful,  and  these  subject- 
ive and  objective  elements  are  the  manifestation  of 


198  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


**  Every  human  soul,"  said  Plato,  *  "  has  contemplated  essences, 
but  all  souls  have  not  the  same  facility  for  remembering  what  they 
have  seen.  It  belongs  to  the  more  cultured  only,  and  the  more  deli- 
cate among  them,  to  retain  a  faithful  and  definite  souvenir.  These 
are  the  privileged  souls,  who,  perceiving  some  images  of  the  essences, 
feel  themselves  transported  and  ravished  ;  in  the  imperfect  copy  they 
recognize  the  Divine  model,  and  are  deluged  with  a  delicious  joy." 

Thus  the  Thought  of  thoughts,  the  idea  of  Beauty 
which  is  manifested  in  objects  of  beauty  is,  in  the 
Socratic  philosophy,  seized  by  pure  intellect  only,  is 
something  abstract,  independent  of  the  structure 
and  purpose  of  the  World.  Schelling  contends  that 
**  in  God  reside  the  eternal  types  of  things,  finished, 
absolute,  luminous ;  in  God  also  the  Idea  which,  tak- 
ing upon  itself  flesh,  becomes  Raphael,  before  com- 
ing to  study  art  in  the  school  of  Perugino,  was 
strictly  in  the  bosom  of  Divinity  with  the  eternal 
types." 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  this  view,  the  beautiful  is  not 
objective  in  sensible  things  we  term  "beautiful "  ex- 
cept as  imprisoned,  veiled,  mutilated.  It  is  true 
that  the  beautiful  in  objects  cannot  be  perceived  as 
definite  image,  nor  as  a  concept  with  clear  traits  in- 
wardly related  by  a  law.  It  is  in  the  form  of  an 
"  idea."  But  it  is  not  the  captive  and  veiled  pure 
essence  of  the  Platonicians. 

The  divine  ideal  of  the  Beautiful  must  also  be 
rescued  from  the  claims  of  those  who  belong  to  the 
school  of  transform  ism.  To  make  art  the  vassal  of 
our  sensation  of  the  agreeable,  or  of  our  selfish  es- 
timate of  what  is  useful  to  us,  is  to  bring  Uriel  from 

*  Quoted  by  Cherbuliez  in  his  Philosophic  du  Beau. 


^sthetical  Ground,  199 


the  skies  to  grind  in  the  mills  of  a  selfish  and  warring 
wodd.  It  is  to  degrade  the  divine  Ideal,  to  deny  that 
minds,  occupied  of  necessity  with  the  vulgar  interests 
of  life,  can  experience  a  disinterested  feeling,  and  be 
stirred  by  great  and  unselfish  emotions  The  Agreeable 
before  a  work  of  art,  or  in  contemplating       or  useful  is 

not  Beauty. 

the  moral  beauty  of  heroic  conduct.  It 
is  to  reduce  the  self-forgetful  delight  kindled  by  ob- 
jects of  beauty  to  a  pathological  interest.  "  Art  alone," 
says  Vischer,  "■  has  the  faculty  of  rendering  us  purely 
contemplative,  and  of  making  us  to  know  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  Beautiful,  apart  from  all  pathological 
interest."  Beauty,  indeed,  must  not  cause  a  dis- 
agreeable feeling,  must,  on  the  contrary,  be  always 
agreeable,  but  to  define  it  as  the  agreeable  is  wholly 
inadmissible.  The  Beautiful  is  a  sense  of  delight 
which  we  feel  belongs  to  all  humanity,  is  of  universal 
validity.  A  sensation  of  the  agreeable  is  a  fugitive 
sensation  ;  may  be  here  to-day,  and  to-morrow  de- 
part ;  but  Beauty  is  not  fugitive,  is  always  ready  to 
procure  for  us  the  agreeable  feeling. 

Nor  is  the  '  useful  *  equivalent  to  the  beautiful,  for 
many  works  of  art  possessing  no  utility,  are  admired 
for  their  beauty  only.  The  Apollo  Belvedere  never 
leaves  its  place  in  the  gallery  at  Rome,  cannot  be  of 
use  to  those  who  come  and  go,  otherwise  than  to 
kindle,  in  those  who  look  upon  it,  a  disinterested 
pleasure.  An  implement  of  agriculture  may  be  in- 
dispensable, but  rouses  no  aesthetic  interest. 

The  ancient  theory  of  Hippias  defines  Beauty  as 
suitableness  to  the  end.     But  while  the  beautiful  is 


198  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


"  Every  human  soul,"  said  Plato,  *  "  has  contemplated  essences, 
but  all  souls  have  not  the  same  facility  for  remembering  what  they 
have  seen.  It  belongs  to  the  more  cultured  only,  and  the  more  deli- 
cate among  them,  to  retain  a  faithful  and  definite  souvenir.  These 
are  the  privileged  souls,  who,  perceiving  some  images  of  the  essences, 
feel  themselves  transported  and  ravished  ;  in  the  imperfect  copy  they 
recognize  the  Divine  model,  and  are  deluged  with  a  delicious  joy." 

Thus  the  Thought  of  thoughts,  the  idea  of  Beauty 
which  is  manifested  in  objects  of  beauty  is,  in  the 
Socratic  philosophy,  seized  by  pure  intellect  only,  is 
something  abstract,  independent  of  the  structure 
and  purpose  of  the  World.  Schelling  contends  that 
**  in  God  reside  the  eternal  types  of  things,  finished, 
absolute,  luminous  ;  in  God  also  the  Idea  which,  tak- 
ing upon  itself  flesh,  becomes  Raphael,  before  com- 
ing to  study  art  in  the  school  of  Perugino,  was 
strictly  in  the  bosom  of  Divinity  with  the  eternal 
types." 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  this  view,  the  beautiful  is  not 
objective  in  sensible  things  we  term  "  beautiful "  ex- 
cept as  imprisoned,  veiled,  mutilated.  It  is  true 
that  the  beautiful  in  objects  cannot  be  perceived  as 
definite  image,  nor  as  a  concept  with  clear  traits  in- 
wardly related  by  a  law.  It  is  in  the  form  of  an 
"  idea."  But  it  is  not  the  captive  and  veiled  pure 
essence  of  the  Platonicians. 

The  divine  ideal  of  the  Beautiful  must  also  be 
rescued  from  the  claims  of  those  who  belong  to  the 
school  of  transformism.  To  make  art  the  vassal  of 
our  sensation  of  the  agreeable,  or  of  our  selfish  es- 
timate of  what  is  useful  to  us,  is  to  bring  Uriel  from 

*  Quoted  by  Cherbuliez  in  his  Philosophic  du  Beau. 


^sthetical  Ground.  199 


the  skies  to  grind  in  the  mills  of  a  selfish  and  warring 
world.  It  is  to  degrade  the  divine  Ideal,  to  deny  that 
minds,  occupied  of  necessity  with  the  vulgar  interests 
of  life,  can  experience  a  disinterested  feeling,  and  be 
stirred  by  great  and  unselfish  emotions  The  Agreeable 
before  a  work  of  art,  or  in  contemplating       orusefuiis 

not  Beauty. 

the  moral  beauty  of  heroic  conduct.  It 
is  to  reduce  the  self-forgetful  delight  kindled  by  ob- 
jects of  beauty  to  a  pathological  interest.  "  Art  alone," 
says  Vischer,  '*  has  the  faculty  of  rendering  us  purely 
contemplative,  and  of  making  us  to  know  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  Beautiful,  apart  from  all  pathological 
interest."  Beauty,  indeed,  must  not  cause  a  dis- 
agreeable feeling,  must,  on  the  contrary,  be  always 
agreeable,  but  to  define  it  as  the  agreeable  is  wholly 
inadmissible.  The  Beautiful  is  a  sense  of  delight 
which  we  feel  belongs  to  all  humanity,  is  of  universal 
validity.  A  sensation  of  the  agreeable  is  a  fugitive 
sensation  ;  may  be  here  to-day,  and  to-morrow  de- 
part ;  but  Beauty  is  not  fugitive,  is  always  ready  to 
procure  for  us  the  agreeable  feeling. 

Nor  is  the  *  useful '  equivalent  to  the  beautiful,  for 
many  works  of  art  possessing  no  utility,  are  admired 
for  their  beauty  only.  The  Apollo  Belvedere  never 
leaves  its  place  in  the  gallery  at  Rome,  cannot  be  of 
use  to  those  who  come  and  go,  otherwise  than  to 
kindle,  in  those  who  look  upon  it,  a  disinterested 
pleasure.  An  implement  of  agriculture  may  be  in- 
dispensable, but  rouses  no  aesthetic  interest. 

The  ancient  theory  of  Hippias  defines  Beauty  as 
suitableness  to  the  end.     But  while  the  beautiful  is 


198  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


"Every  human  soul,"  said  Plato,*  "has  contemplated  essences, 
but  all  souls  have  not  the  same  facility  for  remembering  M'hat  they 
have  seen.  It  belongs  to  the  more  cultured  only,  and  the  more  deli- 
cate among  them,  to  retain  a  faithful  and  definite  souvenir.  These 
are  the  privileged  souls,  who,  perceiving  some  images  of  the  essences, 
feel  themselves  transported  and  ravished  ;  in  the  imperfect  copy  they 
recognize  the  Divine  model,  and  are  deluged  with  a  delicious  joy." 

Thus  the  Thought  of  thoughts,  the  idea  of  Beauty 
which  is  manifested  in  objects  of  beauty  is,  in  the 
Socratic  philosophy,  seized  by  pure  intellect  only,  is 
something  abstract,  independent  of  the  structure 
and  purpose  of  the  World.  Schelling  contends  that 
"  in  God  reside  the  eternal  types  of  things,  finished, 
absolute,  luminous ;  in  God  also  the  Idea  which,  tak- 
ing upon  itself  flesh,  becomes  Raphael,  before  com- 
ing to  study  art  in  the  school  of  Perugino,  was 
strictly  in  the  bosom  of  Divinity  with  the  eternal 
types." 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  this  view,  the  beautiful  is  not 
objective  in  sensible  things  we  term  "  beautiful "  ex- 
cept as  imprisoned,  veiled,  mutilated.  It  is  true 
that  the  beautiful  in  objects  cannot  be  perceived  as 
definite  image,  nor  as  a  concept  with  clear  traits  in- 
wardly related  by  a  law.  It  is  in  the  form  of  an 
"  idea."  But  it  is  not  the  captive  and  veiled  pure 
essence  of  the  Platonicians. 

The  divine  ideal  of  the  Beautiful  must  also  be 
rescued  from  the  claims  of  those  who  belong  to  the 
school  of  transformism.  To  make  art  the  vassal  of 
our  sensation  of  the  agreeable,  or  of  our  selfish  es- 
timate of  what  is  useful  to  us,  is  to  bring  Uriel  from 

*  Quoted  by  Cherbuliez  in  his  Philosophie  du  Beau. 


^sthetical  Ground,  199 


the  skies  to  grind  in  the  mills  of  a  selfish  and  warring 
world.  It  is  to  degrade  the  divine  Ideal,  to  deny  that 
minds,  occupied  of  necessity  with  the  vulgar  interests 
of  life,  can  experience  a  disinterested  feeling,  and  be 
stirred  by  great  and  unselfish  emotions  The  Agreeable 
before  a  work  of  art,  or  in  contemplating       or  useful  is 

not  Beauty. 

the  moral  beauty  of  heroic  conduct.  It 
is  to  reduce  the  self-forgetful  delight  kindled  by  ob- 
jects of  beauty  to  a  pathological  interest.  "  Art  alone," 
says  Vischer,  ^*  has  the  faculty  of  rendering  us  purely 
contemplative,  and  of  making  us  to  know  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  Beautiful,  apart  from  all  pathological 
interest."  Beauty,  indeed,  must  not  cause  a  dis- 
agreeable feeling,  must,  on  the  contrary,  be  always 
agreeable,  but  to  define  it  as  the  agreeable  is  wholly 
inadmissible.  The  Beautiful  is  a  sense  of  delight 
which  we  feel  belongs  to  all  humanity,  is  of  universal 
validity.  A  sensation  of  the  agreeable  is  a  fugitive 
sensation  ;  may  be  here  to-day,  and  to-morrow  de- 
part ;  but  Beauty  is  not  fugitive,  is  always  ready  to 
procure  for  us  the  agreeable  feeling. 

Nor  is  the  '  useful  *  equivalent  to  the  beautiful,  for 
many  works  of  art  possessing  no  utility,  are  admired 
for  their  beauty  only.  The  Apollo  Belvedere  never 
leaves  its  place  in  the  gallery  at  Rome,  cannot  be  of 
use  to  those  who  come  and  go,  otherwise  than  to 
kindle,  in  those  who  look  upon  it,  a  disinterested 
pleasure.  An  implement  of  agriculture  may  be  in- 
dispensable, but  rouses  no  aesthetic  interest. 

The  ancient  theory  of  Hippias  defines  Beauty  as 
suitableness  to  the  end.     But  while  the  beautiful  is 


200  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


included  in  the  purpose  of  the  world  (and  purpose 
is  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  beautiful),  yet  Beauty 
is  not  identical  with  purpose. 

The  longer  we  reflect,  the  more  we  become  con- 
vinced that  the  feeling  of  the  Beautiful  cannot  have 
True  Art  3,  sensuous  oHgin,  cannot  be  explained  by 
appeals  to  the  its  being  simply  agreeable  or  useful  to  us. 

higher  soul.       .  ,     ^  r    ,     • 

Art,  however  successful  m  representmg 
grace  of  form,  fails  of  attaining  the  true  Beauty 
when  it  appeals  to  a  voluptuous  interest  only.  It 
appeals  to  the  higher  soul  through  the  senses,  and 
if  a  form  fashioned  by  Praxiteles  or  Canova  gives 
rise  to  no  feeling  of  ideal  worth,  if  a  painting  by 
Raphael  or  Murillo  exalts  us  not  to  ennobling  emo- 
tion, the  triumph  of  Art  is  not  reached. 

The  sentiment  of  the  Beautiful  is,  it  is  true,  not 
to  be  identified  with  the  moral  and  religious  feel- 
ing. The  moral  and  religious  character  of  artists 
does  not  advance  with  equal  step,  with  their  appre- 
ciation of,  and  power  to  represent,  the  Beautiful. 

Beauty  is,  indeed,  always  moral ;  the  ideal  of  Beauty 
ennobles  the  soul,  points  always  to  Absolute  Good- 
ness and  Truth,  but  the  object  of  the  artist  is  to  be 
an  artist,  and  in  disinterested  effort  to  make  others 
experience  the  aesthetical  delight  which  fills  his  own 
soul.  So  unselfish  a  sentiment  cannot  be  hostile  to 
moral  and  religious  feeling ;  in  fact,  it  becomes  their 
friend  and  ally.  The  artist,  though  he  may  some- 
times be  deficient  in  ethical  and  spiritual  life,  is  too 
conscious  of  Beauty  to  permit  himself  to  prostitute 
Art.     He   keeps   himself  loyal   to   the  divinity  of 


jiEsthetical  Ground,  201 


Beauty,  and  often  unconsciously  becomes  the  apos- 
tle of  Truth  and  Goodness.  Art,  though  disinter- 
ested, loving  the  Beautiful  for  its  own  sake,  cannot 
escape  moral  obligation.  It  may  choose  ignoble 
subjects,  may  strive  to  impart  grace  to  an  immoral 
conception,  but  in  the  process  the  Ideal  fades  away, 
and  the  artistic  feeling  suffers  an  irreparable  injury. 
The  eternal  trinity — Truth,  Goodness,  and  Beauty, 
is  a  Divine  unity  of  elements  not  to  be  confounded 
with  each  other,  nor  can  they  be  sundered.  Beauty, 
physical,  intellectual,  moral,  raises  the  soul  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  infinite  Goodness,  and  awakens  in 
the  bosom  of  man  '*  the  desire  of  an  eternal  future 
and  of  a  sublime  existence." 

Here  we  may  be  reminded  that  the  Beautiful  ap- 
pears not  the  same  to  all.     One  may  ask  a  friend, 
"  This  seems  to  me  a  master  piece  of  art ; 
do  you  not  accept  my  judgment  of  it  ?  "      judgments 
The  shattering  answer  may  come,  *'  I  do      concerning 

^  .        ,     "^        ./.    1       1  the  Beautiful. 

not  see,  as  you  see,  its  beautiful  charac- 
ter." One  is  thus  forced  to  feel  with  Turner  who, 
when  a  lady  remarked,  ''  I  do  not  see  what  you  do 
in  nature,"  replied  to  her,  "  Do  you  not  wish  you 
could.  Madam  .'^"  Sadly  must  we  confess,  also,  that 
a  poem,  statue,  or  style  of  some  writer  may  seem 
beautiful  to-day,  and  at  a  later  period  we  feel  that 
there  is  less  beauty,  or  none  whatever,  which  appeals 
to  us.  Is  there  then  any  authority  to  be  attached  to 
our  aesthetical  judgments  ? 

The  authority  is  not  lost,  for  with  every  higher 
conception  of  Beauty  gained,  we  feel  that  we  ought 


202  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


to  rejoice  in  it.  Its  empire  over  us  is  to  last  until 
we  arrive  at  a  still  higher  conception  of  Beauty. 
The  Gauls  in  Rome  looked  with  the  indifference  of 
barbarians  upon  the  statues  of  gods  and  heroes. 
The  dancer  Vestris  classed  himself  with  Voltaire  and 
Frederick  the  Great  because  he  could  leap  higher 
than  any  artist  of  his  school.  Insensibility  to  art  in 
its  higher  forms  is  a  characteristic  of  the  Hottentot, 
but  he  is  not  without  some  idea  of  beauty  which 
commands  him.  A  savage  would  not  perceive  the 
exquisite  proportions  of  the  Parthenon.  It  is  a  far 
cry  from  such  a  savage  to  a  Goethe  who  muses  as  he 
sits  upon  one  of  its  fallen  capitals,  but  the  savage 
may  become  a  Goethe,  after  centuries  of  develop- 
ment have  passed  away. 

Our  Moral  verdicts  are  authoritative,  though  in 
advance  from  those  of  primitive  to  modern  man 
they  have  attained  to  more  exactness.  There  is 
much  in  the  world  to  distress  the  moral  reason, 
and  not  yet  is  the  mind  of  man  able  to  reduce  all 
that  happens  to  the  law  of  a  Divine  purpose.  But 
enough  is  seen  of  this  purpose  to  enable  man  to 
realize  the  grandeur  of  his  destiny,  and  to  inspire 
us  to  highest  effort  in  the  service  of  God  and  of 
humanity. 

In  like  manner  there  is  much  that  is  vague  and 
indeterminate  in  our  aesthetic  verdicts,  but  the  more 
refined  the  spirit  of  man  becomes,  the  more  he 
gains  of  life  from  the  Source  of  all  life,  the  nearer 
we  approach  a  consensus  of  judgment  concerning 
things  Beautiful  and  Good. 


^sthetical  Ground.  203 


•'  Art  truly  human,"  writes  De  Pressense,  '*  could  not  be  a  proud 
Olympian,  who  knows  only  how  to  smile.     After  it  has  made  us  to 
admire  beauty  in  serenity  by  the  chisel  of  a  Phidias, 
Art  knows  how  to  put  into  a  thought  an  abyss  of  sad-     Sublime  ob- 
ness.     Grand  poetry,  lyric  and  tragic,  portrays  to  the  q^^ 

life  our  crimes  and  our  anguish,  our  contrition,  our 
burning  and  baffled  aspirations.  yEschylus  and  Shakspere  enable  us 
to  understand  the  great  cries  of  despair  of  the  captive  and  trembling 
soul.  Beethoven  cast  them  towards  the  heavens  as  the  mighty  plaint 
of  an  ocean  of  sorrow.  He  is  not  a  great  artist  who  has  not,  in  the 
hour  of  supreme  inspiration,  felt  the  coal  of  consuming  fire  upon  his 
trembling  lips." 

Every  great  work  of  art,  statue,  poem,  oratorio,  or 
temple,  every  deed  of  moral  beauty  performed  by 
noble  or  peasant,  plunges  the  soul  into  sweet  melan- 
choly, in  which  an  immortal  hope  asserts  its  power. 
The  Indian  who  in  the  prehistoric  age  of  America 
stood  wrapt  in  thought  by  the  cataract  of  Niagara, 
discerned  in  its  sublimity  the  hovering  presence  of 
the  Great  Spirit.  The  immensity  of  ocean,  when  it 
beats  out  its  music  on  the  keys  of  rock,  and  its 
waves  sprinkle  the  stars,  the  solitary  grandeur  of  the 
mountain  peak  which  man  has  never  scaled,  reveal 
to  us  the  majesty  and  repose  of  a  Power  which  gov- 
erns the  world.  The  revelation  of  the  Infinite  both 
humbles  and  exalts  man  in  the  contemplation  of 
sublimity.  The  exhibitions  of  ordinary  beauty  are 
tolerant  of  man's  feebleness,  and  do  not  crush  his 
powers  of  imagination.  The  immensities  which  con- 
stitute the  sublime  in  Nature  at  first  cause  a  fear 
which  distresses  man.  But  soon  the  discernment 
of  the  Divine  Power  manifest  in  these  intolerable 
grandeurs,  becomes  a  consciousness  of  man's  own 


204  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


spiritual  greatness,  and  of  his  kinship  with  the 
Spiritual  Sovereign  of  the  Universe.  The  magni- 
tudes of  matter  no  longer  fill  him  with  consterna- 
tion ;  his  breast  expands  with  the  conviction  that  as 
a  partner  in  the  Infinite  life  he  will  outlast  all  visi- 
ble grandeurs,  and  he  is  reassured  and  exalted  by  a 
sovereign  self-respect. 

The  words  uttered  by  Diotima  to  Socrates  in  the 
Banquet  may  fitly  close  this  chapter : 

"  He  who  has  learned  to  see  the  beautiful  in  due  order  and  succes- 
sion, when  he  comes  toward  the  end  will  suddenly  perceive  a  nature 
of  wondrous  beauty  (and  this,  Socrates,  is  the  final  cause  of  all  our 
former  toils) — a  nature  which  in  the  first  place  is  everlasting,  not 
growing  and  decaying,  or  waxing  and  waning  ;  secondly,  not  fair  in 
one  point  of  view  and  foul  in  another  ;  or  at  one  time  or  in  one  rela- 
tion or  at  one  place  fair,  at  another  time  or  in  another  relation  or  at 
another  place  foul,  as  if  fair  to  some  and  foul  to  others,  .  .  .  but 
beauty  absolute,  separate,  simple,  everlasting,  which  without  diminu- 
tion and  without  increase,  or  any  change,  is  imparted  to  the  ever- 
growing and  perishing  beauties  of  all  other  things.  He  who  from 
these,  ascending  under  the  influence  of  true  love,  begins  to  perceive 
that  beauty,  is  not  far  from  the  end.  And  the  true  order  of  going,  or 
being  led  by  another,  to  the  things  of  love,  is  to  begin  from  the 
beauties  of  earth  and  mount  upwards  for  the  sake  of  that  other  beauty, 
.  .  .  from  fair  forms  to  fair  practices,  and  from  fair  practices  to 
fair  notions,  until  from  fair  notions  he  arrives  at  the  notion  of  abso- 
lute beauty,  and  at  last  knows  what  the  essence  of  beauty  is.  This, 
my  dear  Socrates,"  said  the  stranger  of  Mantineia,  "  is  that  life  above 
all  others  which  man  should  live,  in  the  contemplation  of  beauty  ab- 
solute. .  .  .  But  what  if  man  had  eyes  to  see  the  true  beauty — 
the  divine  beauty,  I  mean,  pure  and  clear  and  unalloyed,  not  clogged 
with  the  pollutions  of  mortality  and  all  the  colors  and  vanities  of 
human  life — thither  looking,  and  holding  converse  with  the  true 
beauty  simple  and  divine?  Remember  how  in  that  communion  only, 
beholding  beauty  with  the  eye  of  the  mind,  he  will  be  enabled  to 


^sthetical  Ground.  205 


bring  forth,  not  images  of  beauty,  but  realities  (for  he  has  hold  not  of 
an  image  but  of  a  reality),  and  bringing  forth  and  nourishing  true 
virtue  to  become  the  friend  of  God  and  be  immortal,  if  mortal  man 
may.     Would  that  be  an  ignoble  life  ?  "  * 

*  Jowetfs  Translation^  vol.  i.,  pp.  581-2. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


SPIRITUAL   LOVE  AN   IDEAL  TO   BE   REALIZED, 


THE  arsenal  of  Religious  Philosophy  is  not  ^ex- 
hausted, when  we  have  inferred  the  reality  of 
the  Divine  Being  from  the  existence  in  man's  soul 
of  the  rational,  moral,  and  aesthetic  ideals.  The 
highest  ideal  which  attests  the  immanence  of  God 
in  the  self-consciousness  of  man,  is  that  of  Love. 

It  has  not  been  contended  that  the  Ideals  which 
have  claimed  our  attention  are  proofs  of  the  Divine 
_   „  ,        existence.     They  are  themselves  the  Di- 

The  God-  ^  /  ^ 

consciousness  viuc,  immanent  in  man's  self-consciousness, 
in  man.  There  can  be  no  proof  of  self-conscious- 

ness or  of  the  reality  of  our  minds,  since  the  mind 
must  exist  before  there  can  be  any  logical  exercise. 
The  aurora  of  man's  self-consciousness  is  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Absolute  self  from  whose  substance  man 
is  derived.  The  Divine  Reason  is  immanent  in  hu- 
man reason  before  it  can  search  for  any  proof.  The 
validity  of  reason  must  be  granted  before  any  act  of 
reasoning   is   possible.     The    Ethical   Divine   must 

206 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized,       207 


exist  in  man  before  any  theory  of  morals  can  be 
constructed.  The  divine  Beauty  must  be  an  endow- 
ment of  the  soul  before  Esthetic  reason  can  frame 
any  theories  of  the  ideal  of  the  Beautiful. 

Primitive  man  possessed  the  consciousness  of  a 
Power  upon  whom  he  felt  himself  to  depend,  towards 
whom  flashed  his  thought  and  feeling.  The  rational, 
ethical,  and  spiritual  ideals  would  never  have  begun 
their  march  towards  liberation  in  progressive  culture, 
had  they  not  germinally  existed  in  the  God-con- 
sciousness of  man. 

The  escape  from  immanent  Divinity  is  as  impos- 
sible as  the  escape  from  self-consciousness,  as  the 
escape  from  the  shadow  of  the  body. 

To  expect  to  prove  in  logical  fashion  the  reality  of 
self,  or  of  the  Absolute  immanent  self,  would  seem 
to  be  the  insanity  of  Philosophy.     Hence       ,  .  .  . 

•'  ■"■      '  Intuitions 

there  is  an  element  of  pallor  and  unreality  needing  no 
in  all  logical  attempts  to  prove  or  disprove  ^'*°°^* 

the  existence  of  the  Spiritual  Ground  of  the  universe 
of  matter  and  mind.  The  logical  argument  may  un- 
mask the  facts  of  the  God-consciousness,  it  does  not 
found  them.  Welcome  as  an  ally,  to  the  self-revela- 
tion of  God  immanent  in  the  soul,  when  the  logical 
argument  assumes  the  chief  role  as  advocate,  it  be- 
comes an  usurper,  as  when  the  constable  of  the  palace 
dethrones  the  king. 

The  ethical  spiritual  consciousness  is  not  only  the 
dynamics  of  history  ;  it  attests  most  imperatively  and 
directly  the  immanence  of  God  in  the  soul,  and  is  the 
earliest  impulse  in  the  field  of  experience.    Wonder, 


2o8  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


sense  of  dependence,  fear,  gratitude,  hope,  and  even 
love,  were  primitive  feelings  by  which  the  powers  of 
reasoning  were  reinforced. 

Logical  reason  may  conduct  us  to  a  Monistic  prin- 
ciple like  that  of  Spinoza,  as  cold  and  loveless  as  the 
Matterhorn.  The  ethical  and  spiritual  Reason  must 
not  be  made  a  vassal  of  the  discursive  intellect,  and 
the  words  of  the  Christ  are  forever  true,  "  The  pure 
in  heart  shall  see  God."  Abstract  Metaphysic,  let 
us  hope,  has  closed  its  reign  in  the  realm  of  Philoso- 
phy, and  an  Ethic-Metaphysic  which  takes  account 
of  the  moral  and  spiritual  elements  in  man  will  in 
future  direct  the  march  of  thought.  The  soul  of 
man  is  a  trinity  in  unity,  and  the  Eternal  Father 
who  has  delegated  to  us  our  selfhood,  is  still  im- 
manent in  us,  as  the  Source  of  our  rational,  moral, 
and  spiritual  life,  and  is  intuitively  known  by  us  in 
the  response  of  our  triune  consciousness  to  his  touch 
upon  the  soul. 

It  is  imperative,  however,  to  distinguish  this  truth 
of  the  Divine  immanence  in  Nature  and  the  Soul 
from  the  conclusions  of  scientific  and 
sciousness  '  mctaphysical  Pantheism.  A  Spiritual 
and  Panthe-  Philosophy  of  religion  cherishes  no  horror 
of  Pantheism  when  the  latter  is  rightly 
defined.  St.  Paul  when  he  declares  that  "  in  God 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being"  may  be  re- 
garded as  in  one  sense  a  Pantheist.  But  the  true 
Pantheism  must  be  distinguished  from  the  false  Pan- 
theism. 

Every  Theist  who  believes  that  in  the  reason,  con- 


spiritual  Love  afi  Ideal  to  he  Realized,       209 


science,  and  higher  affections  of  man  God  is  imman- 
ent, and  that  in  Him  we  "  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being,"  is  in  one  sense  a  pantheist.  But  he  is 
not  a  pantheist  of  the  school  which  makes  man  but 
an  iridescent  bubble  on  the  stream  of  an  Eternal 
thought  process,  and  thus  fuses  the  human  substance 
into  the  Divine  substance  in  a  way  to  annihilate  the 
selfhood  of  man,  and  cause  human  agency  to  vanish 
into  that  of  the  absolute. 

Dr.  Martineau*  has  made  this  clear  in  his  admir- 
able chapter  upon  the  "  Relative  Validity  of  Theism 
and  Pantheism."  The  immanence  of  God  in  the 
soul  does  not  absorb  the  agency  of  man.  That 
agency  in  us  would  be  impossible  were  we  not  de- 
pendent upon  him  as  the  Ground  of  being;  but  our 
dependence  is  the  assurance  of  our  independence. 

In  the  felicitous  words  of  Dr.  Martineau, 

Our  "  independence  is  conceded  to  us  by  the  author  of  our  being, 
and  though  entrusted  for  a  while  with  a  certain  free  play  of  causality, 
is  referable  in  the  ultimate  resort  to  the  Supreme  Cause :  it  is  in- 
cluded in  what  he  has  caused,  though  excepted  from  what  he  is  caus- 
ing. It  takes  nothing  from  his  infinitude,  but  what  he  himself 
renounces  ;  and  what  is  thus  relinquished  is  potentially  retained. 
The  self-abnegation  of  Infinity  is  but  a  form  of  self-assertion,  and  the 
only  form  in  which  it  can  reveal  itself."  t 

Thus  man  cannot  in  thought,  though  conscious  of 
living  in  God,  abdicate  his  own  causal  personality. 

No  logic  which  effaces  the  distinction  between  the 
Divine  Will  and  human  will  can  maintain  its  hold 
upon  thought,  or  convince  us  that  God,  not  Bee- 

*  Study  of  Religion,  vol.  ii,,  pp.  166-183. 
f  Study  of  Religion,  vol.  ii.,  p.  182. 


2IO  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


thoven,  composed  the  Moonlight  Sonata,  and  that 
God,  not  Napoleon,  fought  the  battle  of  Marengo.'* 
Metaphysical  Pantheism,  like  Saturn,  devours  its 
own  offspring.     It  is  nobler  than  scientific  Panthe- 

Metaphysicai  ^^"^  ^"  ^^^^'  ^^^^  ^^^  reality  of  absolute 
and  Scientific  Spirit  is  placcd  beyond  the  assault  of 
Pantheism,  ^laterialism.  Its  error  Hes  in  cancelling 
nature  and  man  as  illusions.  Scientific  Pantheism, 
reversing  the  process,  must  stand  upon  matter,  while 
metaphysical  Pantheism  tries  its  flight  into  the  thin 
air  of  the  unrelated  Absolute.  The  Pantheism  of 
science  moving  triumphantly  upward  from  the  plural 
phenomena  of  Nature  to  unity,  resolving  all  forces 
into  a  primal  force,  arrives  at  its  atoms,  and  declin- 
ing to  enter  the  realm  of  metaphysic  halts  in  a  reso- 
lute atheism,  or  forced  to  see  in  matter  only  a 
manifestation  of  something  higher,  accepts  a  Soul  of 
the  World,  or  a  Principle  of  Life  {Anima  Mundi). 
As  Martineau  has  pointed  out,  this  conception  will 
be  pantheistic  and  the  universal  Life  will  be  a  hylo- 
zoic  or  biozoic  principle — as  a  favorite  view  of  the 
World  may  determine.  Thus  with  metaphysical 
Pantheism  the  Absolute  devours  the  World ;  with 
scientific  Pantheism  the  World  devours  God.  He 
is  at  the  most  conceded  to  be  an  unknown  Power, 
or,  with  Hartman,  an  Unconscious  Mind.  The  truth 
common  to  both  systems  is,  that  God  and  the  World 
cannot  be  sundered,  but  in  both  the  individuality  of 
man  vanishes  and  a  fatalistic  process  is  made  to 
explain  the  Universe. 

*  Note  I. 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized,        2 1 1 


Pantheism,  whether  claiming  to  arrive  at  what  is 
termed  by  Spinoza  the  "  intellectual  love  of  God," 
or    at    the   ''Cosmic    Emotion"    of    the 

•  ^-    i.  •  •  r    /-     J  Spiritual 

scientist,  gains  no  consciousness  of  God  affection  im- 
and,  of  course,  no  personal  love  for  him.     possible  for 

r    -r.         1      •  rr         '  r      Pantheism. 

The  ideals  of  Pantheism,  the  offspring  of 
vague  and  poetic  conceptions  of  the  Universe,  or 
kindled  by  a  sense  of  the  dignity  of  science  and  of 
the  power  of  the  human  intellect,  may  indeed  raise 
thinkers  above  the  level  of  vulgar  interests,  may  even 
inspire  scorn  of  selfish  conduct.  Having,  however, 
made  human  action  a  part  of  a  fatalistic  process  of 
the  World,  good  and  evil  are  alike  the  acts  of  the 
Universe,  and  the  ethical  imperatives  vanish,  and 
with  them  all  true  consciousness  of  the  Being  to 
whom  conscience  relates  us.  The  author  of  Riddles 
of  the  Sphinx  *  declares  that  Pantheism  is  practically 
Atheism,  and  that  we  lack  courage  or  logic  if  we  re- 
gard them  as  not  identical. 

'*  For  if  all  is  God  and  all  is  one,  all  distinctions  vanish.  ...  In 
the  mouth  of  a  Pantheist  the  accusation  of  Atheism  is  ridiculous. 
For  just  as  King  Charles  II.  wittily  declared  during  the  Popish  plot, 
that  he  feared  to  be  dethroned  for  his  complicity  in  the  plot  against 
his  own  life,  so  the  atheist  may  plead  against  the  pantheist  that  in 
his  impiety  he  offends  against  no  one  but  himself,  and  that  no  one 
need  interfere  if  it  pleases  God  to  blaspheme  himself."  f 

The  personality  of  man  capable  of  love  for  a  personal 
God  and  Father  is,  therefore,  the  Gibraltar  of  Rehg- 
ion.  How  we  possess  personality  not  swallowed  up 
in  the  divine  Personality,  is  beyond  our  knowledge. 

*  F.  C.  S.  Schiller,  Ph.D.,  p.  327. 
f  Ibid. ,  p.  327. 


2 1 2  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief. 


It  is  the  old  question  of  the  finite  existing  together 
with  the  Infinite. 

"  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how, 
Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  Thine." 

The  divine  Reason  is  immanent  in  the  laws  of  our 
reason  :  the  ideals  of  Truth,  Goodness,  and  Love  we 
share  with  God. 

"  There  is,"  says  Professor  Upton,  "  a  universal  and  eternal 
element  in  Love  as  well  as  in  Reason  and  Duty  ;  and  what  quali- 
fies  Christianity  for  becoming  a  world-wide  religion 
fections  com-  ^^'  ^^^^^  ^'  ^^  based  on  the  deepest  of  all  principles,  viz., 
plete  Ethical  on  the  principle  that  only  in  Divine  Love  does  the  soul 
conscious-  fully  realize  its  inherent  birthright,  that  birthright  which 
°*^**  belongs  to  it  in  virtue  of  the  presence  of  the  Eternal 

Father  in  its  self-consciousness,  and  in  virtue  of  the  transcendent  truth 
that  God,  in  calling  into  existence  rational  souls,  has  formed  them,  not 
of  some  foreign  material  extrinsic  to  Himself,  but  in  very  truth  of 
His  own  essence  and  substance,  and  has,  therefore,  to  that  extent  died 
in  order  that  they  may  live.  What  we  call  Divine  Love,  though  it  by 
degrees  emerges  in  human  nature  out  of  the  midst  of  the  feelings  of 
family  and  tribal  relationship  and  widening  social  sympathies,  yet 
contains,  as  an  essential  factor  of  its  very  being,  a  rational  and  univer- 
sal element  which  distinguishes  it  toto  ccclo  from  any  mere  inheritance 
or  development  of  gregarious  instincts  or  non-rational  sympathy."  *  f 

From  the  Ethical  feeling  spring  those  lofty  spirit- 
ualities which  have  ennobled  the  race,  and  which  arc 
presages   of    the     Kingdom    of   purified 
based  upin     Spirits.     Love  is  a  divine  involution,  the 
Ethical  feel-  finality  of  the  world-process,  and  in  the 
lowest  moralities  there  is  the  potentiaHty 
of  the  higher  affections.     The  destiny  of  Ethics  is 
*  Note  II.  t  Hihbert  Lectures,  pp.  83,  84. 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized,        213 


to  be  perfected  in  Religion,  which  is  a  communion  of 
Love.  Therefore  the  progress  in  religious  concep- 
tions could  be  made  only,  pari  passUy  with  the  ad- 
vance of  the  moral  ideals.  The  Gods  of  the  early 
ages  were  moralized  in  the  progress  of  culture,  and 
man  drew  nearer  to  the  Heart  of  Goodness,  and 
gained  nobler  affections  as  he  yielded  to  the  Spirit 
revealed  in  the  conscience.  Weary  and  long  as  was 
the  march  from  the  God-consciousness,  as  an  ethical 
law  in  the  soul,  to  the  consciousness  of  God  as  Love, 
yet  from  the  first,  the  synthesis  of  duty  and  spon- 
taneity, or  of  Law  and  Love  was  inevitable.  The 
goal  of  progress  is  the  equilibrium  betwen  Conscience 
and  Love,  in  the  union  of  man  with  God.  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold  is  just  to  the  wonderful  people 
whose  history  revealed  an  unceasing  pursuit  of 
righteousness. 

The  Ethical  consciousness  of  the  Hebrew  is  an 
illustrious  proof  of  the  immanence  of  God  in  the  con- 
science of  man.     The  mists  which  have   „^^.    ,,  , 

Ethical  feel- 
shrouded  the  intellect  have  vanished  and  ingofthe 
it  has  advanced  to  higher  conquests,  under  Hebrews. 
the  pressure  of  the  Divine  moral  impulses.  Where 
the  Ethical  insight  has  been  feeble,  or  has  been  per- 
verted by  love  of  military  conquest,  or  by  an  excess- 
ive metaphysical  speculation,  true  religion  has  been 
retarded  in  its  growth,  or  eclipsed  for  a  time. 

Much  as  the  world  owes  to  the  genius  of  Greece, 
it  may  still  be  said  that  not  Athens  or  Rome  "  but 
Jerusalem,  is  the  Mother  of  us  all."  Man  takes  his 
way   onward    through   the  ethical  to   the  religious 


214  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


consciousness,  in  which  love  becomes  the  law  of 
action.  Religions  based  alone  on  the  speculations 
of  the  intellect,  upon  aesthetic  impulse  or  unregulated 
sentiment,  end  in  scepticism  or  fanaticism,  if  not 
anchored  to  reality  by  clear  discernment  of  moral 
obligations  towards  God  and  man.  The  Mosaic 
commands  become  a  pathos  of  the  heart,  and  an  end- 
less sigh  for  the  possession  of  inward  righteousness 
is  heard  in  the  strains  of  the  Prophets  of  the  eighth 
century.  The  Divine  impulse  culminated  in  the 
advent  of  the  Lord  of  Christendom,  and  Law  was 
transfigured  into  Love.  Duty  is  the  sister  of  Love, 
and  F.  W.  Robertson  and  others  are  right  in  urging 
the  souls  who  are  storm-tossed  in  the  archipelago  of 
doubt,  to  perform  the  first  duty  with  total  self-sur- 
render, and  thus  plant  the  footstep  upon  the  santa 
scala  ascending  towards  Eternal  Love. 

"  If  we  now  look  back  from  this  height  of  the  Christian  knowledge 
of  God  to  the  development  of  the  consciousness  of  God  in  the  history 

of  religion,  it  can  hardly  escape  us  that  that  high  point 
Unity  of  ^y^g  |.j^g  gQ^I  ^Q  vvhich  the  whole  development  strove 

.  from  the  beginning,  and  which  is  already  prefigured  in 

the  religious  capacity  of  man.  For  in  some  form  or 
other  these  two  things  are  always  contained  together  in  the  belief  in 
God  ;  an  ideal  of  what  ought  to  be,  and  that  this  is,  at  the  same  time, 
the  power,  and  the  ground  of  real  being.  That  God  is  the  Ideal  of 
moral  goodness,  that  He  is  the  Holy  Will,  was  the  revelation  of 
Israel.  But  that  this  will  of  Goodness  is  the  Love  which  communi- 
cates itself  to  us,  and  which  has  constituted  and  guided  nature  and 
history,  in  order  to  realize  itself  in  humanity  as  a  kingdom  of  love 
— this  is  the  revelation  of  Christianity,  in  which  all  the  religious  pre- 
sentiment and  longing  of  humanity  before  Christ  comes  to  its  fulfil- 
ment. 

"  Now,  as  the  end  of  a  development  must  always  be  thought  of  as 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        2 1 5 


its  ground  and  law,  we  shall  now  be  entitled  to  say  that  the  love 
which  was  recognized  at  the  culminating-point  of  the  history  of  re- 
ligion as  the  essence  of  God,  was  even  from  the  very  beginning  the 
ground  of  the  human  consciousness  of  God,  which  indeed  could  only 
disclose  itself  gradually  to  the  consciousness  of  men,  in  the  slow  march 
of  the  human  development,  as  the  content  of  their  belief  in  God.  This 
is  the  sense  in  which  we  use  the  term  when  we  designate  the  revela- 
tion of  God  in  the  religious  Order  of  the  world  as  revelation  of  his 
love.  *  Thou  hast  created  us  for  Thyself,  and  our  heart  is  restless  till 
it  has  come  to  rest  in  Thee.'  This  beautiful  expression  of  Augustine 
is  in  fact  the  key  to  the  whole  history  of  Religion."  * 

Because  of  a  distrust  of  feeling,  as  affording  safe 
guidance,  Duty  may  be  sundered  from  Love.  The 
ethics  of  the  nobler  Stoics  and  the  rigorism       ^  ^ 

o  Duty  and 

of  Kant  are  tinged  perhaps  with  an  ele-  Love  often 
ment  of  despondency,  but  they  were  able  sundered, 
to  inspire  both  Roman  and  German  to  heroic  con- 
duct. The  sanity  of  the  soul's  life  is  found  in  the 
consciousness  of  God  as  immanent  not  only  in  Rea- 
son, not  only  in  emotions  of  Love,  nor  in  Ethical 
insight  alone,  but  in  their  healthy  interaction.  If 
emphasis  is  to  be  laid  upon  either  one  of  these 
modes  of  the  soul's  life,  it  is  more  safely  placed 
upon  the  Ethical  consciousness.  But  Ethics  which 
does  not  rise  to  a  conception  of  the  Heart  of  the 
Universe  as  a  Being  who  is  not  Justice  alone,  but 
Love  as  well,  lacks  the  divine  fire  and  conquering 
energy  which  Jesus  imparted  to  his  followers,  and 
which  enabled  them  to  subvert  the  empire  of  the 
Caesars.  Seneca  and  Marcus  Aurelius  challenge  our 
admiration  for  the  moral  sentiments  they  have  be- 

*  Professor  Otto  Pfleiderer,  Philosophy  and  Development  of  Re^ 
ligion. — Gi ff or d  Lectures,  1894,  vol.  i.,  pp.  195,  196. 


2 1 6  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


queathed  to  us,  rising  above  their  hard  environment, 
but  they  belong  rather  to  the  first  of  the  two  classes 
into  which  Cromwell  separated  earnest  minds,  to 
the  class  of  the  "  seekers  "  and  not  to  that  of  the 
**  finders."  St.  Louis  of  France  and  St.  Boniface 
are  types  which  rise  above  them,  blending  ethical 
purity  with  hopeful  self-sacrificing  love.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  no  morals  however  rigorous,  arrested  in 
progress  towards  the  religious  affection,  can  lift 
the  world  to  a  higher  level  as  inevitably  as  can  the 
love  which  inspired  the  souls  of  Luther,  Elizabeth 
of  Hungary,  F^nelon,  Wilberforce,  and,  in  our  own 
day,  Phillips  Brooks. 

Historians,  too  conscious  of  human  weakness,  and 
eager  to  chronicle  the  sins  instead  of  the  virtues  of 
mankind,  might  contemplate  with  profit  some  of  the 
lives  depicted  in  Montalembert's  Monks  of  the  West. 
Duty  and  love  were  never,  perhaps,  more  intimately 
blended,  nor  shone  with  a  diviner  lustre,  than  in  the 
character  of  Queen  Radigund,  the  forced  spouse  of 
the  cruel  Clotaire.  It  seems  impossible  for  human 
nature,  amidst  earthly  trials,  to  more  perfectly  blend 
love  with  duty,  humility  with  firmness,  holy  and 
charitable  activity  with  meditative  sweetness,  and 
joy  in  Hfe  with  the  experience  of  living  martyrdom. 

The  fire  of  Divine  love  never  became  extinct 
during  the  darkest  ages.  Paganized  Pontiffs  and 
Inquisitorial  Courts  were  not  the  possessors  of  the 
love  of  Christ ;  but  true  Religion,  in  which  there  is 
a  marriage  of  duty  and  love,  flourished  in  many  a 
cloister  and  at  many  courts,  but  the  historian  has 


spiritual  Love  aii  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        217 


too  often  been  unmindful  of  them,  and  has  em- 
blazoned the  crimes  of  despots,  hypocrites,  and 
fanatics.  Love  is  the  highest  revelation  of  God  in 
the  self-consciousness  of  man,  and  to  that  disclosure 
of  the  Absolute  in  the  soul  we  owe  all  that  is  best 
in  our  civilization.  That  it  is  the  most  potent  force, 
all  mankind  confess  by  their  instinctive  response  to 
its  influence.  In  modern  economics  the  demand  for 
more  altruistic  feeling  is  a  confession  that  intellect 
and  force  are  at  their  wits'  end,  and  that  the  hope 
of  society  lies  in  the  exercise  of  a  Divine  sympathy. 
Man,  in  his  egoism,  misses  the  simple  truth  until 
disaster  compels  him  to  forsake  his  devices  and  be- 
take himself  to  this  Divine  element  for 

T.1  1  •  r       1  1  Spiritual  ex- 

succor.     The   history  of   thought   makes  perience  the 
manifest  the  preference  of  the  mind  for         highest 

^  1      /•  1  evidence. 

labored  proofs  of  great  facts  and  of  truths 
which  require  no  logical  demonstration  of  their  re- 
ality. Goethe  sometimes  felt  thus  and  exclaims, 
"  Open  your  eyes  :  ye  are  not  required  to  search  for 
the  good  in  the  far  distant ;  it  is  here  if  ye  will  but 
grasp  it."  The  science  of  life  must  take  account  of 
the  fact  of  the  Spiritual  insight  which  is  but  the 
Ethical  consciousness  attaining  its  true  goal  in  the 
apprehension  of  the  Supreme  Love,  "  the  objective 
Perfection  pervading  the  Universe  with  Holy  Law," 
and  the  right  within  the  soul  is  seen  to  be  the  in- 
dwelling of  the  Divine  in  the  human.  Psychology 
may  no  longer  treat  with  disdain  the  Spiritual  con- 
sciousness which  has  exalted  so  many  of  the  race  to 
grandeur  of  conduct,  and  whose  verdict  upon  the 


2 1 8  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


great  questions  which  shake  the  world  is  regarded  as 
final,  though  selfishness  and  worldliness  decline  to 
accept  it  as  the  rule  of  life. 

The  word  *  Mysticism '  has  for  some  time  been 
charged  with  a  sinister  meaning.  That  the  intui- 
Mysticism  tions  of  rcasou,  conscience,  and  feeling  all 
essential  to  attcst  the  sclf-rcvelation  or  immanence  of 
God  in  man,  and  that,  to  place  exclusive 
stress  upon  any  one  mode  of  this  revelation  is  to 
indulge  a  one-sided  view  of  the  soul,  is  manifest. 
'  Mysticism  *  has  come  to  stand  for  the  insulation 
of  feeling,  as  the  exclusive  form  of  our  apprehension 
of  God  and  of  his  indwelling.  It  is  not  possible, 
however,  to  accuse  modern  religious  philosophy  of 
a  mystical  tendency.  The  intuition  of  feeling  has 
been  exiled  too  long  from  companionship  with  that 
of  reason  and  of  conscience.  The  time  has  come 
for  a  recognition  of  the  truth  inherent  in  Mysticism, 
of  the  validity  which  the  word  implies.  The  Mystic 
errs,  not  in  trusting  to  feeling  as  an  intuition  of  the 
Divine,  but  in  sundering  the  insight  of  feeling  from 
the  insight  of  reason,  and  from  that  of  the  ethical 
consciousness.  It  is  the  most  amiable,  indeed  the 
holiest,  of  errors.  The  Mystic  is  not  more  in  error 
than  the  rationalist,  or  the  moralist,  when  he  trusts 
to  his  intuition  of  the  presence  of  the  Infinite  in  the 
finite  soul.  Assuming  that  God  reveals  his  presence 
in  the  three  forms  of  our  consciousness,  viz.,  reason, 
conscience,  and  feeling,  he  is  in  accord  with  the 
metaphysician  and  the  moralist.  With  them  he 
holds  that  the  existence  of  God  is  not  a  reality, 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        219 

wholly  inferred  by  a  course  of  thought,  but  a  self- 
revelation  of  the  Infinite  in  the  rational,  moral,  and 
spiritual  constitution  of  man. 

If  Mr.  Spencer  can  say  that  the  Finite  has  an  im- 
mediate consciousness  of  the  Infinite,  and  if  Dr. 
Martineau  can  say  that  the  apprehension  of  God 
through  conscience  is  as  direct  and  real  as  our  im- 
mediate consciousness  of  an  objective  world,  the 
Mystic  has  a  right  to  say  that  we  have  an  immediate 
acquaintance  with  God  through  the  feeling.  If  he 
errs  in  assuming  that  through  feeling  alone  we  ap- 
prehend God,  and  that  feeling,  not  intellect,  is  that 
which  reaches  truth,  so  also  does  Principal  Caird  err 
when  he  says  '*  that  what  enters  the  heart  must  first 
be  discerned  by  the  intellect  as  true."  Mysticism 
has  not  always  been  divorced  from  reason,  nor  has  it 
often  felt  itself  superior  to  the  claims  of  practical 
morality,  and  perhaps  no  one  did  more  than  Schleier- 
macher  to  defend  the  validity  and  authority  of  Spir- 
itual insight,  calling  into  his  service  Philosophy. 

The  attempt  of  mediaeval  Mysticism  to  attain  a 
privileged  gnosis,  turning  away  from  ordinary  sources 
of  knowledge,  not  subjecting  the  intuition  Mistakes  of 
of  feeling  to  the  friendly  criticism  and  Mediaeval 
verification  which  reason  and  the  moral  ysticism. 
sense  afford,  was  followed  by  a  reaction  towards  a 
philosophic  formulation.  *'  It  is  true,"  says  the  au- 
thor of  Hours  with  the  Mystics,'^  "  that  no  method  of 
human  wisdom  will  reveal  to  men  the  hidden  things 
of  the   Divine  kingdom.     But  it  is  also   true  that 

*  Vaughan,  Hours  with  the  Mystics,  vol.  ii.,  p.  70. 


220  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief, 


dreamy  gazing  will  not  disclose  them  either.  Schol- 
arship may  not  scale  the  heights  of  the  unrevealed, 
and  neither  assuredly  may  ignorance.  There  is  noth- 
ing to  choose  between  far-seeing  Lynceus  and  a  com- 
mon sailor  of  the  Argo,  when  the  object  for  which 
they  look  out  together  is  not  yet  above  the  horizon. 
The  latter,  at  all  events,  should  not  regard  the  ab- 
sence of  superior  endowment  as  an  advantage."  "^ 
Meanwhile,  to  afifirm  that  Mysticism  contains  not  an 
indispensable  truth,  that  it  rests  upon  subjective  illu- 
sions or  states  of  consciousness  without  objective 
ground,  is  to  assail  the  sober  experience  of  all  the 
learned  and  unlearned,  who  have  felt,  in  communion 
with  God,  an  elevation  of  soul.  The  intuition  of 
ordinary  religious  feeling,  in  the  tranquil  moods  of 
the  spirit,  and  that  which,  amidst  sublime  scenes  of 
Nature,  or  in  presence  of  some  Godlike  exploit,  be- 
comes a  shiver  of  rapture,  are  the  same  in  essence, 
different  only  in  the  extent  to  which  the  Divine 
reveals  itself  in  the  soul. 

If  Mysticism,  implying  unregulated  feeling,  is  not 
without  danger  of  passing  into  immorality,  that 
Spiritual  con-  Spiritual  love,  while  completing  the  Eth- 
sciousness       j^al  iusight,  must  rest  upon  the  latter,  as 

rests  upon  .  ....  ■■«■  i«  i  •   i 

Ethical  in-  Its  ground,  is  obvious.  Morality,  busy  with 
sight.  ^^^^  q£  duty,  may  be  arrested  in  its  passage 

over  to  Spiritual  affection,  but  in  its  essence  is  trans- 
itive, and  must  be  transfigured  into  higher  feeling, 
or  lose  its  empire.  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold's  definition 
of  Religion  as  Morality  touched  with  emotion,  is 
*   Note  III. 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        221 


essentially  true.  Conscience  with  its  ideals  must 
inevitably  bring  us  into  the  presence  of  Eternal  Holi- 
ness and  Love.  Moral  character  is  incomplete  until 
duty  becomes  a  spontaneity,  until  Law  becomes 
Love. 

'*  It  is  here,  perhaps,"  says  Dr.  Martineau,  "  that  the  main  difference 
lies  between  the  Will  ethically  obeying,  and  the  heart  spiritually  sur- 
rendered,— between  morality  and  religion.  Morality  applies  itself 
successively  to  several  points  of  duty  :  religion,  fairly  awakened,  seizes 
all  at  once.  Morality,  intent  on  one  obligation,  is  apt  to  be  betrayed 
upon  another :  religion  demanding  harmony  above  everything,  achieves 
the  whole  more  easily  than  a  part,  and  takes  the  discords  out  of 
opposites.  Morality  proceeds  from  action  towards  the  soul :  religion 
issues  with  the  soul  into  action.  ...  If  you  are  intimately  thrown 
with  one  in  whom  you  recognize  a  greater  spirit  than  your  own,  to 
whose  gentle  or  majestic  excellence  you  go  into  captivity,  his  power 
over  you  takes  no  single  line  of  direction,  but  speaks  through  all  the 
dimensions  of  your  nature  :  it  does  not  set  you  on  copying  him,  but 
bends  you  low  before  the  Holiest  of  all :  so  clearing  away  the  whole 
film  of  conscience,  that  duty  stands  with  all  its  obligations  before 
your  eye  at  once,  and  life  is  seen  no  longer  in  section  only,  but  in  its 
deep  moral  perspective."  * 

The  moral  feelings  are  essentially  prophetic ;  they 
inspire  a  sublime  discontent,  until  the  vision  of  an 
infinite  Perfection  is  gained,  then,  no  longer  exiles 
without  a  country,  they  become  restored  and  joyful 
subjects  of  their  liege  and  sovereign  Lord.  The 
divorce  of  the  ethical  and  affectional  elements  of 
Religion  results  in  disaster.  Either  we  wander 
amidst  the  chilling  shades  of  derivative  moralities  of 
social  expediency,  or  pass  into  the  realm  of  an  intox- 
icating mysticism. 

The  feehng  of  remorse  is  an  ethical  recognition 

*  study  of  Religion ,  vol.  ii.,  p.  31. 


222  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


of  an  unseen  Holiness,  watching  the  conduct  of  man."^ 
The  consciousness  that  conduct  is  watched,  not  only 
Remorse  an  givcs  Hse  to  remorsc  when  duty  is  not 
ua?l'x°perL"''  ^ccded,  but  to  the  fceliug  of  trust  and 
ence.  lovc  for  the  Being  who  watches  us,  when 

the  heart  has  been  true  to  the  imperatives  of  duty. 
This  awareness  of  an  eye  that  follows  us  is  a  spirit- 
ual experience  of  One  who  is  not  only  a  moral,  but  a 
loving  Being,  and  in  healthy  souls,  remorse  is  but  a 
step  from  penitence,  and  the  latter  feeling,  is,  in 
its  essence,  a  sorrowful,  trusting  love.  The  ethico- 
spiritual  nature  of  remorse  cannot  be  explained  in 
terms  of  physical  or  derivative  morality.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  how  one  reared  in  a  school  of 
thought  which  derives  moralities  from  a  non-moral 
source,  from  social  utilities  or  customs,  for  example, 
of  purely  naturalistic  or  animal  origin  in  which  no 
immanency  of  the  Divine  is  admitted,  could,  after 
some  criminal  deed,  escape  into  solitude,  safe  from 
pursuit,  and  have  no  feeling  of  remorse.  The  de- 
rivative Moralist,  in  his  study  or  chair  of  instruction, 
innocent  of  crime,  is  one  person, — the  same  Moralist 
a  fugitive  from  justice,  and  even  in  a  safe  asylum 
where  his  forgery  or  murder  will  never  be  known,  is 
a  wholly  different  person.  A  voice  from  the  Heart 
of  being  will  not  fail  to  be  heard,  and  cause  him  to 
tremble.  Man  is  more  than  he  thinks  he  is,  and  what- 
ever rampart  his  naturalistic  morality  may  have 
raised  between  him  and  infinite  Purity,  in  a  critical 
moment  those  ramparts  will  mysteriously  fall,  and 
*  Note  IV. 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized,        223 


leave  his  soul  face  to  face  with  absolute  Justice. 
Remorse  may  at  any  moment  become  holy  sorrow, 
which  discloses  infinite  Justice  as  infinite  Love. 

"  Those  high  instincts  before  which  our  mortal  nature 
Doth  tremble  like  a  guilty  thing  surprised," 

come  upon  the  transgressor  and  reveal  to  him  a  Be- 
ing who  will  pardon,  and  with  that  discovery,  there 
comes  the  courage  to  return  and  submit  to  human 
justice. 

Thus  from  the  depths  of  the  soul,  buried  under  the 
iciest  layers  of  theory,  the  Divine  fire  of  sorrow  for 
wrong  done,  bursts  forth  into  flame.  This  ethico- 
spiritual  sorrow  for  ignoble  acts  of  which  human 
justice  cares  not  to  take  account, — which  are  acts 
even  included  with  those  which  society  believes  to 
be  expedient, — often  manifests  a  volcanic  energy  in 
the  reformation  of  one  who  reviews  his  ungrateful 
conduct,  or  his  life  of  selfish  indolence.  His  remorse 
is  not  ethical,  simply,  but  charged  with  a  spiritual 
feeling  of  the  Goodness  he  has  wounded. 

To  resolve  by  any  analysis  this  unique  ethico- 
spiritual  feeling  of  remorse  into  survivals  of  non- 
moral  naturalistic  elements,  m  which  no 
Divine  impulse  is  active,  will  be  forever  survival  of 
an  inadequate  explanation.  As  Professor  social  judg- 
Schurman  says  in  his  Belief  in  God  :  "  Only 
the  satirist  could  declare  that  twice  two  would  make 
five  if  that  product  were  advantageous.  Arithmeti- 
cal facts  cannot  be  determined  by  a  plebiscite  of 
utilitarians.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  deliver- 
ance of  conscience  that  injustice  is  wrong.'* 


224  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


The  consciousness  of  Sin  is  the  negative  aspect  of 
man's  intuition  of  God  as  Holy  Love.  The  gastric 
Conscious-  theory,  which  materialism  provides  for 
nessofsin.  ^^^  explanation  of  the  spiritual  feelings, 
can  give  no  account  of  the  sense  of  Sin,  and  must 
always,  at  this  point,  break  down.  The  direct  appeal 
to  the  consciousness  of  Sin  never  fails  to  find  an 
echo  in  the  soul ;  we  have  only  to  appeal  from 
the  Philip  intoxicated  with  theory,  to  Philip  in  his 
senses.  Moral  indignation  against  wickedness  which 
touches  his  personal  welfare,  flashes  as  quickly  from 
the  eyes  of  the  materialist  as  from  those  of  the  be- 
lievers in  the  spiritual  origin  of  man.  Nations,  as  well 
as  individuals,  commit  sin,  and  Sin  is  more  than  simple 
injustice.  And  when  one  people  sins  against  another, 
openly,  cruelly,  the  speculations  of  the  cloister,  in 
which  Sin  is  treated  as  an  illusion,  are  set  aside,  and 
the  philosopher,  as  well  as  the  tradesman,  or  artisan, 
is  fired  to  resistance.  This  moral  fire  is  kindled  at 
the  Divine  Fire  of  God's  hostility  to  Sin.  In  the 
German  and  English  Reformations,  and  it  may  be 
said  in  the  French  Revolution  as  well,  the  righteous 
anger  against  sin  in  high  places  was  the  cause  of  ex- 
plosion. 

To  this  inexpugnable  spiritual  consciousness  of  an 
indwelling  Spirit  of  Holiness  and  Love,  must  we  at- 
tribute also  the  impatience,  on  the  part  of 

This  con-  .   i       /■    i 

sciousness  has  the  noblcst  of  the  race,  with  false  con- 
made  men       vcntionalities,  and  the  holy  unrest  which 

reformers.  ■' 

has  accompanied   their  highest  achieve- 
ments.    The  Divine  Spirit  in  human  souls,  and  not 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized,        225 


^*  vibrations "  or  **  vibratiuncles  "  in  the  brain,  can 
alone  account  for  this  noble  melancholy,  this  pro- 
found abhorrence  of  Sin.  The  great  forces  of  so- 
ciety have  been  the  men  who  have  held  the  views  of 
the  Christ  concerning  Sin,  and  have,  in  the  State  as 
well  as  in  the  Church,  fought  against  it. 

"  These  are  properly  our  Men,"  says  Mr.  Carlyle,  "  the  guides  of 
the  dull  host  which  follow  them  by  an  irrevocable  decree.  They  are 
the  chosen  of  the  world  ;  they  had  the  rare  faculty  not  only  of  '  sup- 
posing *  and  *  inclining  to  think,'  but  of  kno7ving  and  believing  ;  the 
nature  of  their  being  was  that  they  lived  not  by  hearsay,  but  by 
clear  Vision  :  while  others  hovered  and  swam  along,  in  the  grand 
Vanity  Fair  of  the  World,  blinded  by  the  mere  Show  of  things,  these 
saw  into  the  Things  themselves,  and  could  walk  as  men  having  an 
eternal  lode-star  and  with  their  feet  on  sure  paths.  .  .  .  Such 
knowledge  of  the  transcendental^  immeasurable  character  of  Duty 
•we  call  the  basis  of  all  the  Gospels,  the  essence  of  all  Religion  :  he 
who  with  his  soul  knows  not  this,  as  yet  knows  nothing,  as  yet  is 
properly  nothing." 

The  God-consciousness  in  man  reaches  its  zenith 
in  Spiritual  affection  which,  in  self-sacrifice,  can  lay 
aside  a  ducal  or  regal  crown  to  brave  pesti-  ^ove  the 
lence   and    death  in   ministering  to   the    highest  ood- 

,    r      1         »-pi  •  r    /-li     •    .  .        ',        '      consciousness. 

wretched.  1  he  genius  or  Christianity  is 
that  of  self-sacrificing  love.  Neither  the  power  of 
Constantine,  nor  the  genius  of  Hildebrand,  founded 
Christendom.  It  was  not  the  armies  of  Rome  that 
arrested  the  terrible  advance  of  Attila.  M.  Amad^e 
Thierry  tells  us  how  a  Roman  Pontiff,  humbling  him- 
self as  a  suppliant,  in  the  words  of  Prosper  d*  Aqul- 
taine,  "  committing  himself  to  the  assistance  of  God 
who  never  fails  to  the  efforts  of  the  just,"  went  forth 


226  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


to  meet  the  conqueror  and  vanquished  him.  The  spirit 
of  Christ  is  not  one  of  aggression,  nor  that  of  violent 
defence ;  it  conquers  by  love.  ""  The  lives  of  Christ- 
ians," says  Mr.  Merivale,  "  have  been  ever  the  last 
and  surest  argument  for  Christianity.  This  com- 
pleted the  conversion  of  the  Empire  ;  this  completes 
day  by  day  the  conversion  of  the  worldling  and  the 
sinner.  It  defies  criticism  ;  it  transcends  philosophy." 
Nineteen  centuries  have  elapsed,  and  the  secret  of 
Christ  maintains  its  empire,  and  wherever  his  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  is  manifest  in  conduct,  it  disarms  hos- 
tility and  banishes  doubt. 

The  number  of  agnostics  is  small  who  now  have 
the  heart  to  deny  that  the  example  and  spirit  of 
A  nostics  J^sus  Constitute  not  only  the  dynamics  of 
even,  admire  character,  but  the  safeguards  and  hope 
Jesus.  ^£   society    itself.     Selfishness   and    envy 

menace  democratic,  even  more  than  aristocratic, 
society.  Let  Divine  Love  become  the  inspiration 
of  personal  and  social  life  and  a  host  of  evils  would 
disappear,  and  only  those  would  remain  which  result 
from  our  ignorance  of  Nature's  laws  and  forces,  and 
from  the  limitations  of  human  intelligence.  And, 
perhaps,  these  constitute  a  needful  discipline  of  the 
virtues  of  fortitude  and  industry. 

Meanwhile  the  holy  joy  of  self-sacrifice,  grounded 
in  the  consciousness  of  God's  indwelling  in  life,  in- 
spires character  to  the  highest  achievements.  Ethi- 
cal societies,  whose  aim  is  not  speculation,  but  the 
alleviation  of  human  wretchedness,  now  record  the 
conviction  that  in  contact  with  poverty  and  immor. 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        22/ 


ality  they  must  hereafter  avail  themselves  of  the 
"  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection."  Love  for  men 
must  be  manifestly  the  love  which  the  Founder  of 
Christianity  inspires.  The  philanthropist  is  cheered 
by  examples  of  Sisters  of  Charity,  who  have  been 
animated  to  highest  daring  of  self-sacrifice  by  a  Di- 
vine love.  He  delights  to  recall  the  story  of  Catholic 
Fathers  entering  the  gloom  of  the  Western  Wilder- 
ness intent  on  deeds  of  love  ;  of  the  many  examples 
of  voluntary  death  on  fields  of  battle,  while  striving 
with  glances  of  tenderness  to  arrest  the  strife ;  of  the 
hard  toil  in  the  abbeys  of  the  North  to  help  a 
wretched  peasantry,  and  of  many  a  victory  wrought 
by  sweetness  of  temper  over  Barbarian  and  cruel 
Roman. 

And  as  the  thought  flashes  back  over  nineteen 
centuries  of  progress,  the  form  of  the  Son  of  God 
stands  forth  pre-eminent ;  his  cross  rises  against  the 
sky  ;  the  perfect  Ideal  of  love  is  realized.  The  secret 
of  the  victories  of  Christianity  is  revealed  as  the  con- 
quest of  human  nature  by  Eternal  Love  immanent 
in  the  world  from  the  first,  and  struggling  for  recog- 
nition. 


"  The  personal  grandeur  of  Christ,"  says  Edgar  Quinet,  "  is  better 
demonstrated  by  the  movement  and  spirit  of  the  times  which  have 
succeeded  him  than  by  the  Gospels  themselves.     If  I 
knew  nothing  of  the  Scriptures,  an4  had  never  heard  Edgar 

the  name  of  Jesus,  I  must  always  have  thought  that 
some  extraordinary  impulsion  took  place  in  the  world  about  the  time 
of  the  Caesars.     Whence  came  this  impulsion  and  its  wonderful  re- 
sults?   When  Strauss  says  that  he  regards  the  invention  of  the  com- 
pass and  of  steamboats  as  of  more  importance  than  the  cure  of  a  few 


228  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


sick  folk  in  Galilee,  he  is  evidently  the  dupe  of  his  own  reasoning  ; 
for  he  knows  as  well  as  I  do  that  the  miracle  of  Christianity  is  not 
there,  but  rather  in  the  great  marvel  of  Humanity,  cured  of  the  evil 
of  slavery,  of  the  leprosy  of  caste,  of  the  blindness  of  Pagan  sensual- 
ity, able  to  rise  up  and  carry  its  bed  far  away  from  the  old  world. 
He  knows  that  the  wonder  of  Christianity  is  not  so  much  in  water 
having  been  changed  into  wine,  as  in  a  world  changed  by  a  single 
thought,  in  the  sudden  transfiguration  of  the  old  law,  in  the  casting 
off  the  old  man,  in  the  empire  of  the  Caesars  struck  with  stupor,  in 
the  conquest  of  the  conquering  barbarians,  in  giving  birth  to  a  Refor- 
mation that  brought  all  its  dogmas  into  discussion,  to  a  Philosophy 
that  denied  them,  to  a  French  Revolution  that  sought  to  kill  it,  while 
it  only  served  to  realize  it  more  completely  than  ever.  These  are 
the  miracles  by  which  Christianity  appeals  to  us. 

'  *  The  continual  miracle  of  the  Gospel  is  the  reign  of  a  soul  which 
felt  itself  greater  than  the  visible  universe.  This  miracle  is  no  illu- 
sion, no  allegory,  but  a  great  reality.  As  palpable  Nature,  the  Sea, 
the  primitive  Night,  the  shoreless  Chaos  have  in  paganism  served  as 
a  real  foundation  to  the  inventions  of  the  peoples,  in  the  same  man- 
ner the  Infinite  Soul  of  the  Christ  has  served  as  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  whole  Christian  theogony  has  been  built ;  for  what  is  the 
Gospel  if  it  is  not  the  revelation  of  the  inner  world?  " 

NOTE  I. 

Dr.  Martineau  writes  (p.  167,  vol.  ii.)  :  "  The  voluntary 
nature,  then,  of  moral  beings  must  be  saved  from  pan- 
theistic absorption,  and  be  left  standing,  as  within  its 
sphere,  a  free  cause  other  than  the  Divine,  yet  homo- 
geneous with  it.  .  .  .  In  fact  it  saves  itself.  You 
cannot  even  declare  yourself  a  pantheist  without  self- 
contradiction  ;  for  in  doing  so  you  reserve  your  own 
personality  as  a  thinking  and  assertive  power  that  deals 
with  all  else  as  objective." 

The  primitive  consciousness  of  God  was  that  of  Spirit- 
ual agency  behind  the  phenomena  of  Nature,  but  it  was 
man's  own  agency  as  spirit  that  disclosed  the  Absolute 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized,       229 


Spirit  homogeneous  with  his  own.  His  sense  of  depend- 
ence did  not  extinguish  consciousness  of  his  own  agency 
as  spirit.  Not  until  he  reasons  in  a  later  stage  of  reflec- 
tion does  a  metaphysical  Pantheism,  as  in  India,  absorb 
the  finite  in  the  World-soul,  when,  also,  the  human  spirit 
identified  with  the  Oversoul  ceases  to  retain  personality. 
Man  becomes  lost  in  Brahma,  indeed  becomes  Brah- 
ma himself.  No  true  consciousness  of  God  can  sur- 
vive when  the  self  of  man  vanishes  into  the  Absolute, 
and  personal  consciousness  becomes  an  illusion.  Indian 
Pantheism,  as  indeed  the  Pantheism  of  modern  thought, 
affirms  with  truth  the  reality  of  Spirit,  but  at  too  great  a 
cost  in  the  sacrifice  of  man's  personality.  And  as  Indian 
Pantheism  in  an  excess  of  piety  removed  the  basis  of 
morals  and  paralyzed  the  energies  of  man,  dooming  a 
noble  race  to  become  the  prey  of  domestic  tyrants  and 
soon  to  pass  under  the  sway  of  the  Mogul  and  the  Eng- 
lishman, so  the  Idealism  of  Hegel  makes  personality  an 
illusion  and  an  ethical  spiritual  relation  to  God  incon- 
ceivable. 

The  logical  process  of  Hegel  ends  in  fatalism,  for  the 
individuality  of  man  is  swamped  in  the  timeless  con- 
sciousness of  the  Absolute  and  the  goal  of  Pessimism  is 
soon  reached.  The  identification,  by  Mr.  T.  H.  Green, 
of  the  self-consciousness  of  man  with  the  Eternal  self- 
consciousness,  is  the  surrender  of  the  key  to  the  problems 
of  life,  which  is  the  human  personality,  in  spite  of  his 
eloquent  defence  of  the  ethical  imperatives. 

NOTE    II. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  citing  more  at  length.  "The 
revulsion  from  the  absurdities  and  unsympathetic  narrow- 
ness of  English  (orthodox)  theology  has  caused  many  of 


230  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


our  best  ethical  thinkers,  such  as  J.  S.  Mill,  to  turn  their 
faces  away  from  theology,  and  to  seek  elsewhere  for  a 
rational  basis  of  morality.  But  it  is  not  possible  to  place 
Ethics  on  any  solid  and  permanent  foundation,  if  you 
leave  theology  out  of  the  account.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  and  of  Paul  on  this  question  of  '  Love  *  as  a  basis 
of  Ethics  still  holds  good  and  will  forever  hold  good  ; 
and  their  view  of  the  matter  is,  that  men  are  bound  to 
love  their  fellow-men  simply  because  God  is  Love. 

"  In  other  words,  such  love  as  Ethics  needs  for  its 
basis  has  its  origin,  not  entirely  in  the  finite  side  of  our 
being,  by  which  we  are  related  to  the  animals,  and  out 
of  which  Darwin  wastes  his  ingenuity  in  trying  to  evolve 
a  moral  imperative,  but  in  the  universal  and  eternal  side 
of  our  nature,  where  God  immediately  reveals  Himself 
in  our  self-consciousness.  In  all  true  spiritual  love  the 
God-element,  the  Universal,  manifests  its  presence  and 
its  operation.  So  far  is  this  Lave  from  being  identical 
with  mere  sympathetic  feeling,  that  it  is  capable  of  en- 
tirely ignoring  or  overpowering  all  regard  for  the  personal 
pleasure  either  of  the  lover  or  the  beloved  ones ;  and 
this  clearly  shows  that  its  root  is  not  in  man  as  a  finite 
individual,  but  in  the  Oversoul,  that  Absolute  Being  who 
is  incarnate  in  the  human  consciousness  and  is  at  once 
Eternal  Reason,  Will,  and  Love.  Nothing,  it  seems  to 
me,  can  be  more  pitiable  than  the  shifts  to  which  egois- 
tic thinkers  are  put,  when,  in  the  absence  of  any  admis- 
sion of  the  authority  of  the  Universal,  or  God  in  human 
nature,  they  endeavor  to  find  a  rational  ground  for  real 
self-sacrificing  love.  Few  men  probably  have  felt  spir- 
itual love  more  intensely  than  J.  S.  Mill  did  ;  but  his 
writings  reveal  the  almost  grotesque  inadequacy  of  his 
sensational  and  egoistic  philosophy  to  explain  and  ac- 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        23 


count  for  his  own  vivid  recognition  of  the  claims  which 
the  Indwelling  Eternal  made  on  his  soul.  Rather  than 
worship  a  deity  who  had  not  what  we  call  moral  attri- 
butes, he  would,  he  says,  go  to  hell,  /.  ^.,  endure  the  unend- 
ing agonies  which  the  creed-books  associate  with  that 
locality  ;  but  the  only  intelligible  explanation  that  can 
be  given  of  this  statement  is,  that  there  was  in  Mill's 
self-consciousness,  though  not  in  his  philosophical  sys- 
tem, a  quite  infinite  or  incommensurable  difference  of 
ethical  rank  between  the  cravings  for  personal  pleasure 
and  comfort  which  he  felt  as  a  finite  individual,  and  that 
demand  for  absolute  rectitude  and  self-sacrificing  love 
which  was  the  self-revelation  of  the  Eternal  and  the 
Infinite  within  him.  It  has  been  conclusively  shown  by 
Dr.  Martineau  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  a  philoso- 
phy which  begins  with  the  egoistic  maxim,  *  Each  for 
himself,'  to  find  a  road  that  shall  lead  at  last  to  the 
universalistic  maxim,  *  Each  for  all.'  "  * 

As  to  the  last  sentence  which  Professor  Upton  quotes 
from  Martineau,  I  may  remind  the  reader  of  the  attempt 
by  Professor  Drummond  in  the  Ascent  0/ Man^  to  find 
the  road  out  from  individualism  to  altruism,  from 
"  Struggle  for  one's  own  Life  "  to  the  "  Struggle  for  the 
life  of  Others."  In  nutrition  and  reproduction  among 
the  animals,  and  even  "  in  the  lowliest  world  of  plants  " 
where  the  "  labors  of  maternity "  begin.  Professor 
Drummond  finds  the  "  coexistence  of  twin  streams  of 
egoism  and  altruism,  which  often  merge  for  a  space 
without  losing  their  distinctness  and  are  traceable  to  a 
common  origin  in  the  simplest  forms  of  life."  Divine 
Love  is  thus  infolded  before  it  is  unfolded  in  the  world- 
process,  and  Fatherhood  and  Motherhood  are  developed 
*  Professor  Upton,  Hibbert  Lectures,  pp.  83,  84. 


232  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


from  the  lowest  organisms.  This  view  would  hardly  be 
accepted  by  Professor  Upton  or  Dr.  Martineau,  judging 
by  the  citations  here  given.  They  would,  however, 
agree  with  Professor  Drummond  that  Love  is  the  teleo- 
logical  principle  of  the  world. 

NOTE    III. 

"  The  mystic,"  says  Dr.  Beard  in  his  Hibbert  Lectures, 
*'  is  one  who  claims  to  be  able  to  see  God  and  divine 
things  with  the  inner  vision  of  the  soul — a  direct  ap- 
prehension, as  the  bodily  eye  apprehends  color,  as  the 
bodily  ear  apprehends  sound.  His  method,  so  far  as  he 
has  one,  is  simply  contemplative  ;  he  does  not  argue,  or 
generalize,  or  infer  ;  he  reflects,  he  broods,  waits  for 
light.  He  prepares  for  Divine  communion  by  a  process 
of  self-purification  ;  he  detaches  his  spirit  from  earthly 
cares  and  passions  :  he  studies  to  be  quiet,  that  his  still 
soul  may  reflect  the  face  of  God.  He  usually  sits  loose 
to  active  duty  ;  for  him  the  felt  presence  of  God  dwarfs 
the  world  and  makes  it  common  ;  he  is  so  dazzled  by 
the  glory  of  the  one  great  Object  of  contemplation  that 
he  sees  and  cares  for  little  else.  But  the  morals  of  mys- 
ticism are  almost  always  sweet  and  good,  even  if  there 
be  a  faint  odor  of  cloister  incense  about  them  ;  though 
at  the  same  time  there  are  more  ways  than  one  from 
mysticism  to  immorality,  all  leading  through  the  Pan- 
theism into  which  mystics  are  ever  apt  to  fall.  For 
shall  not  one  who  is  mystically  incorporate  with  God 
live  in  a  region  above  law  ?  And  if  God  be  the  ground 
and  substance  of  all  things,  what  justification  is  there  for 
distinction  between  good  and  evil  ? 

"  But  these  are  comparatively  rare  aberrations,  and 
the  essential  weakness  of  mysticism  lies  in  another  di- 


spiritual  Love  an  Ideal  to  be  Realized.        233 


rection.  It  much  rather  consists  in  the  fact  that  mys- 
ticism cannot  formulate  itself  in  such  a  way  as  to  appeal 
to  universal  apprehension.  It  affirms,  it  does  not  reason  : 
all  the  mystic  can  say  to  another  is,  I  see,  I  feel,  I 
know  :  and  if  he  speaks  to  no  corresponding  faculty,  his 
words  fall  to  the  ground.  Indeed,  the  mystic  is  always 
more  or  less  indistinct  in  utterance  ;  he  sees,  or  thinks 
he  sees,  more  than  he  can  tell :  the  realities  which  he  con- 
templates are  too  vast,  too  splendid,  too  many-sided,  to  be 
confined  within  limits  of  human  words  :  he  looks  at  them, 
now  in  this  aspect,  now  in  that,  and  his  reports,  while 
each  true  to  the  vision  of  the  moment,  have  a  sound  of 
inconsistency  with  each  other.  So  mysticism  usually 
fails  to  propagate  and  perpetuate  itself  ;  the  mystic 
faculty  is  a  gift  of  God,  not  an  aptitude  that  can  be  com- 
municated by  man  to  man.  Its  appearance  in  the 
Church  is  as  that  breath  of  the  Spirit  which  bloweth 
where  it  listeth."  (Quoted  by  Professor  Upton,  in  Hib- 
bert  Lectures^  p.  33.) 

Religious  feeling  cannot  survive  seclusion  from  every- 
day life  and  relations,  and  from  the  regulative  influence 
of  the  practical  understanding. 

NOTE  IV. 

"  Accustomed  as  man  is  to  feel  his  personal  feebleness, 
his  entire  subordination  to  the  physical  forces  of  the 
universe, — unable  as  he  is  to  affect  in  the  smallest  de- 
gree either  the  laws  of  his  body  or  the  fundamental  con- 
stitution of  his  mind, — it  is  not  without  a  necessary  sense 
of  supernatural  awe  that,  in  the  case  of  moral  duty,  he 
finds  this  almost  constant  pressure  remarkably  withdrawn 
at  the  very  crisis  in  which  the  import  of  his  action  is 
brought  home  to  him  with  the  most  vivid  conviction. 


234  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


.  .  .  The  absolute  control  that  sways  so  much  of  our 
life  is  waived  just  where  we  are  impressed  with  the  most 
profound  conviction  that  there  is  but  one  path  in  which 
we  can  move  with  a  free  heart.  To  what  end,  then,  are  we 
allowed  this  exceptional  liberty  to  reject  that  path,  un- 
less a  special  interest  attach  to  our  use  of  it?  And,  if 
so,  are  we  not  then  surely  watched  1 

"  Is  it  not  clear  that  the  Power  which  has  therein 
ceased  to  move  us,  has  retired  only  to  observe,  to  see 
how  we  pass  through  this  discipline  of  self-education  ? 
The  sense  that  a  supernatural  eye  is  upon  us  in  duty  is 
so  strong,  because  the  relaxation  of  constraint  comes 
simultaneously  with  a  deep  sense  of  obligation,  just  as 
the  child  is  instinctively  aware  when  the  sustaining  hand 
is  taken  away  that  the  parent's  eye  is  all  the  more  intent 
on  his  unassisted  movement."  ^Essays^  Theological  and 
Literary^  by  Richard  Holt  Hutton,  vol.  i.,  p.  ii.) 

This  sense  that  we  are  watched,  not  only  begets  a  feel- 
ing of  obligation  which  occasions  remorse  when  not 
yielded  to,  or  when  abused,  but  a  feeling  of  trust  and 
love  when  duty  is  with  fidelity  discharged.  The  ethical 
and  spiritual  feelings  are  herein  blended  into  one. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  ULTIMATE  GROUND,  OR  GOD  REVEALED  IN 

HUMAN   PROGRESS. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  seen  that  the 
Ideals,  rational,  moral,  and  spiritual,  have  been 
the  forces  of  human  progress,  and  that  they  have 
no  explanation  apart  from  their  realization  in  a  Being 
who  is  One,  Wisdom  and  Goodness,  and  in  his 
essence,  absolute  Liberty. 

The  revelation  of  God  in  the  natural  order  has 
been  briefly  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  the  meta- 
physical grounds  of  Belief.  It  was  then  Revelation 
seen  that  the  order  of  Nature  is  a  develop-  through  Natu- 
ment  of  a  purpose  of  Goodness,  though 
our  slight  knowledge  of  Nature  may  never  enable  us 
to  explain  certain  facts  which  seem  devoid  of  telic 
significance.  The  Supreme  Goodness  may  have  a 
higher  end  in  view  than  that  of  guarding  man  from 
physical  forces  which  can  crush  his  body,  since  death 
is  the  gateway  to  an  immortal  life.  And  many 
things  which  now  seem  hideous  in  aspect,  and  cruel 

235 


236  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief, 


in  effect,  may  from  a  higher  point  of  view  of  the 
Universe — when  we  shall  attain  it — be  seen  to  be 
necessary  to  cosmic  perfection.  Amorphous  masses 
of  rock  may  be  seen  to  be  as  necessary  to  the  sym- 
metry of  Nature,  as  the  arch  of  stone  to  an  edifice 
constructed  by  human  art. 

It  may  be  useless  to  discuss  the  question  whether, 
or  not,  the  Creator  could  have  revealed  himself  in  a 
This  world  different  world.  That  he  has  revealed 
the  best  himself  in  this,  may  justly  inspire  us  with 
the  conviction  that  it  is  the  best  revela- 
tion. We  can  fancy  forms  of  God's  activity  other 
than  that  now  presented  to  view,  but  our  ability  to 
indulge  such  fancy  is  the  result  of  Divine  agency 
which  in  its  production  of  the  existing  Universe  re- 
veals itself  as  primal  Reality.  It  is  only  because  we 
are  here,  ourselves  having  a  part  in  a  real  scene  of 
things,  that  we  can  think  of,  or  speak  of,  the  possi- 
bility of  any  other  world  in  which  God  might  have 
revealed  himself.  Nor  can  we  affirm  that  He  was 
forced  to  choose  one  of  several  forms  of  reality,  thus 
finding  himself  conditioned,  for  such  conditions,  ex- 
erting constraint  upon  his  creative  activity,  would 
be  a  Power  above  him.  It  is  God  who,  eternally 
active,  is  the  first  Reality,  and  only  when  he  willed 
the  world  to  exist,  did  it  become  possible  for  fancies 
of  other  worlds  to  arise  in  the  order  of  thought. 

The  mind  may  rest  in  the  belief  that  the  Creator 
has  made  in  the  present  Universe  a  perfect  revela- 
tion of  his  thought  and  goodness.  The  scientific 
conception  of  the  world,  so  far  from  excluding  such 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  237 


a  revelation,  attests  its  reality.  That  Supreme  Good- 
ness has  revealed  itself  in  an  ordered  world  is  mani- 
fest ;  to  expect  it  to  resort  to  capricious  intervention, 
after  instituting  cosmical  laws,  is  to  indulge  a  habit 
of  mind  which  may  end  in  fanaticism.  Religion,  to 
retain  the  respect  of  scientific  reason,  must  concede 
that  a  disclosure  of  the  Divine  mind  and  heart  is 
best  achieved  through  the  uniformity  of  natural  law, 
and  the  inviolable  constitution  of  the  soul.  It  is 
now  difficult  to  determine  the  conception  of  a  miracle, 
as   held   by  theologians.     By  some  it  is 

11         ^    n         ,  -i-ri  i  Miracle. 

frankly  denned  as  violation  of  law,  by 
others  as  suspension  of  law,  by  others  still,  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  for  example,  as  "  the  selection  and 
use  of  laws,  of  which  man  knows  nothing,  and  can 
know,  nothing."  The  reign  of  law,  by  the  latter 
writer,  is  held  to  be  universal.  We  hesitate  to  think 
with  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  that  miracles  occur  by  the 
operation  of  some  unknown  law,  or  unknown  opera- 
tion of  a  known  law.*  Laws  are  only  our  subjective 
account  of  the  uniform  successions  of  the  manifesta- 
tions of  Divine  will.  Miracles  may  be  admitted  as 
Divine  spiritual  acts,  in  what  Lotze  denominates 
*^  the  continual  concourse  of  God  who  alone  medi- 
ates the  action  and  re-action  going  on  between  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  world."  The  Cosmos  itself  is  a 
miracle,  that  is,  is  supra-natural,  as  constituted  of 
interactions  of  the  psychical  monads,  which  inter- 
actions are  grounded  in  the  changes  of  the  states  of 
the  Divine  consciousness.     These  interactions   oc- 

*  Note  I. 


238  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


curring  in  uniform  successions,  appear  to  us  as  the 
World,  or  a  self-contained  whole.  This  appearance 
of  a  self-contained  whole  seems  to  exclude  the  ex- 
ternal interference,  which  the  primitive  beliefs  at- 
tributed to  the  Gods.  The  new  conception  of  Nature, 
as  Divine  mediations,  through  the  free  actions  and 
re-actions  of  created  spirits  appearing  as  the  physical 
Cosmos,  liberates  us  from  static  views  of  the  world- 
order,  and  permits  us  to  regard  the  Divine  concourse 
as  manifesting  itself  at  certain  historic  moments,  in 
new  phenomena.  Such  new  manifestations,  however, 
constitute  no  interference  with  the  uniform  succes- 
sions which  we  name  the  Cosmos. 

Metaphysical  reflection  makes  it  difficult  to  accept 
miracles  as  an  interference  with  the  reasoned  order  of 
Mir  ci  no  ^^^  dependent  Universe.  Miracles  may  be 
interferenc6  held  to  be  outflashcs  of  psychic  activity 
with  order,  f  j.qj^  ^-j^g  realm  of  eternal  Reason  not  in- 
harmonious with  that  activity  which  appears  in  the 
regimented  phenomena  of  the  world.  Such  out- 
flashes  of  the  absolute  Spirit,  reveal  his  absolute 
liberty — the  spiritual  nature  of  the  world-order  and 
perhaps  the  need  on  the  part  of  man  of  exceptional 
Divine  spiritual  activity.  Miracles,  so  called,  at  cer- 
tain historic  moments  are  not  arbitrary  interferences 
with  the  reasoned  order  of  the  world,  but  exceptional 
acts  of  the  Absolute  Spirit,  taking  their  place  in  the 
world-order,  reahzing  the  idea  of  Goodness  in  the 
historic  process.  They  may  be  fortissimo  notes  in 
the  great  harmony  of  God's  spiritual  disclosures  of 
himself. 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  239 


It  is  difficult  to  see  how  revelation,  by  way  of 
miracle,  is  possible  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
religious  faculties  in  man.     Both  the  evi- 

,  r      1  .1  11  ....  Revelation 

dence  of  the  miracle  and  the  truth  it  is  inconceivable 
believed  to  enforce,  appeal  to  the  divine     ^p^^*  ^'■°'" 

•  1  •        1  11  r     ^  capacity. 

germ  within  the  soul,  the  "  product  of  the 
absolute  action  of  God."     Miracles  might  be  mul- 
tiplied, but  apart  from  a  religious  capacity  in  man, 
the  truth  could  never  effect  an  entrance  into  the 
soul. 

The  true  supernaturalism  is  to  be  found  in  the  pro- 
gressive religious  susceptibility  in  man,  not  in  an  ex- 
ternal assault  upon  his  consciousness.  If  there  is, 
then,  immanent  in  all  physical  or  spiritual  phenomena 
a  Power  supra-natural,  it  would  seem  to  empoverish 
the  idea  of  that  Power  to  assume  that  he  cannot 
reveal  himself  wholly  within  and  through  the  order, 
natural  or  spiritual.  The  intelligent  study  of  re- 
ligious experience,  while  not  denying  the  mystical 
nature  of  man's  relation  to  God,  results  in  the  firm 
conviction  that  the  laws  of  human  thought  and  feel- 
ing are  never  abrogated.  Dr.  Herman  Schultz  and 
many  others,  regard  as  a  groundless  prejudice  the 
feeling  *'  that  legend  is  not  a  suitable  medium  for  the 
Spirit  of  revelation  to  employ."  That  myths  and 
legend  have  played  a  conspicuous  role  in  the  history 
of  Rehgion,  is  an  incontrovertible  fact,  and  myth 
and  legend  have  their  genesis  and  growth  in  accord- 
ance with  psychological  laws. 

Man,  who  on  his  physical  side  is  a  part  of  the 
order  of  Nature,  finds,  indeed,  incitements  to  action 


240  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


in  the  external  world,  yet,  in  his  inner  nature,  pos- 
sesses transcendent  powers  of  activity.  He  gains 
from  without  neither  the  content  of  his  sensations 
nor  his  plastic  consciousness.  In  the  free  exercise 
of  reason  and  love  he  converses  with  infinite  Good- 
ness. 

But  in  this  free  converse  of  the  finite  with  the 
infinite  Spirit,  the  psychical  constitution  of  man  is 
„     ,  ,.        not  set  aside,  and  it  is  inconceivable  that 

Revelation  ' 

and  psycho-  any  truth  could  be  made  intelligible  to 
logical  laws.  ^^^   ^^   j^j^   Creator    save  through   the 

capacities  with  which  He  has  endowed  him.  Any 
conception  of  man's  spiritual  nature,  therefore,  which 
would  enable  him  in  some  mysterious  way  to  receive 
communications  from  heaven  without  the  exercise  of 
his  natural  powers,  would  seem  to  be  a  false  one. 
Any  method  of  imparting  truth,  which  would  dis- 
pense with  the  laws  of  psychology  would  seem  to  be 
both  unnecessary  and  impossible. 

In  all  Divine  illumination  of  the  soul,  the  capaci- 
ties of  man  are  sacredly  respected.     The  natural  ap- 
prehension of  Divine  purpose,  the  natural 
I?r*"*  *.-«„   exercise  of  human  affection  towards  the 

Illumination. 

Supreme  Will,  may  establish  such  relations 
with  God  as  to  cast  a  new  radiance  over  Nature  and 
enable  man  to  form  more  just  ideas  of  the  world,  of 
history,  and  of  duty.  Divine  illumination  is  to  the 
human  mind  what  health  is  to  the  body ;  it  exalts 
its  native  capacities  to  the  higher  sanities  of  reason. 
It  imparts  no  scientific  knowledge,  but  kindles  the 
moral  and  spiritual  intuitions  ;   and  contrariwise,  sci- 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  241 


entific  knowledge  without  spiritual  insight  may  not 
gain  a  real  consciousness  of  God.  The  genius  of  La 
Place  may  not  have  enabled  him  to  discern  the  pres- 
ence of  a  kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  The  piety  of 
Thomas  a  Kempis  did  not  enable  him  to  make  dis- 
coveries reserved  for  the  genius  of  Copernicus  or 
Newton.  But  both  religious  and  scientific  thought 
must  move  in  the  realm  of  Reason,  and  both  must 
be  illumined  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  thought, 
to  discern  the  infinite  Love. 

The  evolution  of  the  World  and  of  human  history 
is  a  process  of  Divine  revelation.  If  "  Nature  con- 
ceals God,"  it  is  not  because  Nature  is  not 

T-v-    .  .     .  It  /-•      -I  r-         Development 

Divme,  It  IS  rather  because  God  must  first  of  spiritual 
be   revealed   through  the  moral   and    re-      conscious- 


'fc> 


ness. 


ligious  nature  of  man,  in  order  to  be  dis- 
cerned in  Nature.  Human  history  is  a  revelation  of 
an  Infinite  purpose,  else  the  word  Providence  is  de- 
void of  meaning,  and  the  reins  have  slipped  from  the 
hands  of  the  Creator.  The  history  of  the  race  is  a 
history  of  Religion.  The  historian  cannot  escape 
from  the  duty  of  interrogating  the  primitive  ideas 
which  reveal  the  Divine  impulse  urging  forward  all 
the  peoples  of  the  world  to  higher  moral,  rehgious, 
social,  and  political  conceptions.*  If,  then,  the  his- 
tory of  the  race  is  a  history  of  the  evolution  of 
rehgious  ideas,  that  development  implies  the  im- 
manence of  God  in  the  whole  process,  from  first  to 
last.  We  cannot  hesitate  to  choose  between  the 
supernaturalism  of  occasional  interference  and  the 
*  Note  II. 

x6 


242  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


supernaturalism  of  ordered  progress.    Revealed  truth 

is  either  a  product  foreign  to  man's  consciousness, 

Ordered         outsidc   the   psychological  and  historical 

Progress,       evolution,  or  it  is  an  unfolding  conscious- 
supernatural.  J    1  •         '  .  r    ,y 
ness  possessed  by  man,  in  virtue  of  the 

community  of  essence  which  he  enjoys  with  his 
Creator.  If  the  ancient  peoples  have  possessed  a 
revelation  of  the  Divine  in  their  progressive  thought 
and  conscience,  it  is  because  the  eternal  Reason  has 
ever  been  active  in  the  human  soul,  bestowing  the 
powers  of  reason  and  sustaining  its  growth.  The 
development  of  human  reason  centres,  indeed,  in  the 
Divine  religious  impulse.  It  would  not  be  intel- 
ligible were  we  to  limit  it  to  the  activity  of  the 
human  soul  sundered  from  its  spiritual  Ground. 

The  scientific  instinct  must  be  surrendered  as  irre- 
ligious, or  we  must  decline  to  accept  as  truth  that 
which  is  not  potential  in  the  religious  consciousness 
with  which  man  begins  the  march  of  life,  or  to  accept 
any  fact  which  comes  like  an  aerolite  into  the  atmos- 
phere of  his  thought,  and  which  violates  the  laws  of 
reason  and  conscience,  for  through  the  latter  we  have 
a  prior  revelation  of  God.  There  can  be  no  revela- 
tion which  cannot  become  our  mental  possession, 
and  if  it  can  become  the  property  of  the  mind,  it 
would  seem  unnecessary  to  choose  the  way  of  a 
mysterious  external  authority,  for  the  revelation  is 
already  made  through  the  activities  of  conscience  and 
reason.     Revelation  cannot  contradict  revelation. 

The  mystic  religious  experience  has  been  by  many 
persons    jealously   guarded    from    association   with 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  243 


the  constitutional  activities  of  the  soul.  Mysticism 
has,  however,  recoiled  from  regarding  the  religious 
feeling  as  irrational,  and  if  it  is  rational,  „  „^.  . 

"  '  '  Mysticism  not 

it  takes  its  place  in  the  genetic  order  of  unpsycho- 
consciousness  which  has  its  ground  in  the  ^^''^^  ' 

Divine  Reason.  In  the  experience  of  St.  Paul  or 
Luther,  the  intuition  of  the  new  truth  and  the  sud- 
den entrance  upon  an  altered  life  have  been  pre- 
ceded by  the  struggle  of  conscience,  and  the  influence 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  may  be  discerned  in  painful 
hesitations,  in  the  contention  between  the  will  of 
man  and  the  advancing  consciousness  of  the  Divine 
purpose.  This  warfare  has  taken  place  in  the  realm 
of  psychical  relations.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
Church  would  not  have  had  Paul  had  not  Stephen 
offered  the  martyr's  prayer.  Such  religious  revolu- 
tions are  not  to  be  regarded  apart  from  historic  con- 
ditions, though  indeed  the  outward  impulses  could 
not  of  themselves  have  caused  the  inner  revolution 
of  thought  and  feeling,  for  the  transcendent  relation 
between  the  soul  and  God  is  the  sublime  fact  upon 
which  rests  the  orderly  psychical  process  in  the 
nature  of  man. 

It  is,  indeed,  beyond  our  power  to  always  trace  in 
the  manifold  and  intricate  relations  of  ordinary  con- 
ciousness  the  subtle  connections  of  thought.  Ideas 
flash  upon  us  without  announcement,  the  ancestry 
of  many  convictions  cannot  be  traced,  but  none  the 
less  is  psychology  assured  that  there  is  no  anarchy 
in  thought.  Genius  is  not  independent  of  the 
Zeitgeist ;  the  sudden  flowering  out  of  great  powers 


244  Ideal  Bases  of  Religions  Belief. 


finds  its  explanation  in  the  past  moral,  social,  and  in- 
tellectual conditions,  in  the  spiritual  traits  which 
have  distinguished  a  line  of  ancestors,  and  in  the 
occasions  and  incitements  of  the  present  age.  Each 
man  is  a  genius,  capable  of  original  impulse,  because 
he  shares  the  essence  of  his  Creator,  but  none  the 
less  is  he  the  child  of  his  time.  He  finds  in  his  en- 
vironment the  materials  which  his  plastic  intelligence 
can  turn  to  account,  and  is  felt  as  a  power  among 
his  contemporaries,  because  standing  in  necessary 
relations  to  them. 

Caesar,  Frederick,  or  Napoleon  might  either  one  of 
them  have  arrived  at  peculiar  greatness,  had  he  lived 
in  another  age,  but  neither  of  them  would  have  denied 
that  the  circumstances  of  his  time  largely  made  him 
what  he  was.  The  coming  of  any  hero  is  not  wholly 
a  surprise.  Foregleams  on  the  horizon  herald  the 
star.  The  ideal  haunts  the  minds  of  the  age,  the 
necessities  of  peoples  and  their  longings  infallibly 
announce  the  advent  of  a  great  personality.  The 
new  truth  is  in  the  air  of  life  before  the  inspired 
genius  gives  it  utterance.  The  law  of  identity  and 
difference  is  the  ground  of  all  evolution ;  the  new 
finds  its  causal  conditions  in  the  old,  and  the  old 
finds  its  realization  in  the  new ;  were  it  not  so,  human 
history  would  be  a  series  of  heterogeneous  and  unre- 
lated facts. 

The  continuity  of  historic  consciousness  is  not  in- 
fringed upon  by  the  sublime  revelations  of  an  Isaiah, 
Continuity  ^Isc  his  words  would  be  unintelligible  to 
of  history,     the  people  of  his  time.    The  advent  of  the 


The  Ultimate  Ground.  245 


Lord  of  Christendom  did  not  take  place  before  the 
"  times  were  fulfilled."  Revelation  is  thus  a  progres- 
sive Divine  disclosure,  in  the  ever  unfolding  religious 
capacity  of  man,  of  the  purpose  and  goodness  of 
Him  who  is  immanent  in  history.  The  education  of 
the  race,  like  that  of  the  child,  implies  no  premature 
disclosures,  no  disregard  of  the  genetic  connection 
of  ideas,  no  excessive  demand  upon  the  intelligence, 
no  assumption  that  any  truth  can  be  of  use  which 
dispenses  with  the  response  to  its  voice,  of  the  under- 
standing and  conscience  of  mankind.  Therefore  the 
self-revelation  of  God  in  its  highest  moments  has 
found  its  echo  in  the  moral  consciousness,  because 
that  revelation  has  been  made  through  the  conscious- 
ness, and  has  not  carried  it  by  storm.  To  the  objec- 
tion that  this  is  to  attribute  the  disclosure  of  Divine 
truth  to  finite  origin,  and  thus  to  divest  it  of  its  super- 
natural character,  it  may  again  be  said  that  the 
supernatural  is  the  Ground  of  the  entire  process  of 
the  religious  development.  The  disclosure  cannot 
manifest  itself  at  certain  points  of  time,  independent 
of  the  solidarity  of  history,  and  wjthout  relation  to 
the  psychical  development  of  the  race. 

It  is  of  vital  moment,  in  opposing  the  Deistic  con- 
ception of  the  world  and  humanity,  to  insist  that  the 
primitive  constitution   of  man  was  a  re- 

^  Immanent 

ligious  one,  that  the  first  impulse  of  reason  Revelation, 
was  to  attain  union  with  infinite  Reason  ^^^  Deism, 
and  Love,  that  these  Divine  impulses  have  never 
ceased  to  urge  man  towards  the  ideals  of  goodness, 
and  that  man's  consciousness  of  this  transcendent 


246  Ideal  Bases  of  Religiotis  Belief, 


relation  to  God  has  impelled  him  in  all  ages  to  seek 
and  find  Him  in  his  own  soul  and  heart-experience. 
The  eternal  Love  has  thus  been  ever  active  in  the 
imaginations,  emotions,  and  movements  of  the  will, 
of  man. 

Revelation  is,  then,  coeval  with  the  consciousness  of 
man,  nor  is  it  important  to  afifirm  or  deny  his  ascent 
from  lower  orders  of  life.  The  arguments  of  Mr. 
Romanes  and  others  may  be  safely  left  to  the  future 
of  science.  The  moment  of  self-scrutiny,  in  which 
primitive  man  distinguishes  his  Ego  or  self  from 
beings  and  objects  around  him,  the  moment  he  per- 
ceives himself  to  be  an  agent,  and  discerns  behind 
the  phenomena  of  Nature  an  infinite  Agent,  that 
moment  marks  the  dawn  of  the  religious  sentiment. 
In  that  moment  the  sail  is  hoisted,  and  the  voyage 
of  religious  life  is  begun,  and  will  be  finished.  At 
this  moment  of  man's  psychic  development,  the 
revelation  of  God  is  made,  and  the  consciousness 
of  duty  exists. 

As  the  capacity  for  walking  is  latent  in  the  infant, 
so  in  the  soul  of  primitive  man,  is  latent  the  capacity 
for  an  apprehension  of  God,  and  in  his  experience  in 
world-relations,  man  gains  an  ever  clearer  knowledge 
of  the  Divine  Being.  If  it  is  assumed  that  the 
development  of  the  divine  germ  begins  in  animal 
consciousness,  and  has  been  slow  to  arrive  at  self- 
consciousness  in  man  and  the  discernment  of 
Agency  in  Nature,  the  law  of  continuity  will  still 
operate  in  the  subsequent  progress  of  the  religious 
consciousness,   and    in    accordance  with    that   law, 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  247 


the  Divine  revelation,  through  that  advance  of  con- 
sciousness, will  be  gradual.  In  the  process  of  this 
development  of  his  divinely  constituted  nature,  he 
will  construct  his  language,  imitating  the  sounds  he 
hears  in  nature  aroUnd  him.  From  the  family,  he 
will  advance  to  tribal  and  political  life.  In  dire  con- 
flict with  the  forces  of  nature  and  with  hostile  tribes, 
he  will  experience  the  need  of  help  and  sympathy  of 
a  higher  Power.  The  heart  of  man  is  the  same  from 
the  first :  joy,  sorrow,  hope,  gratitude,  adoration, 
sway  it  in  all  ages,  and  through  these  experiences  is 
the  Divine  revelation  achieved.  Guided  thus  by 
infinite  Goodness  immanent  in  all  life,  his  progress 
towards  clearer  and  nobler  ideals  is  continuous,  and 
the  disclosure  of  infinite  Love  strikes  increasingly 
higher  notes  as  he  pursues  his  way  down  the  cen- 
turies. 

The  revelation  of  the  Highest,  in  and  through  the 
soul,  manifests  itself,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  advent 
of  the  religious  genius,  hero,  prophet,  or 
seer,  who  becomes  the  guide  and  teacher  related  to 
of  his  tribe  or  nation,  not  indeed  the  ^^^time. 
originator  but  the  interpreter  of  truth.  In  his  exalted 
consciousness  of  the  Divine,  he  is  enabled  to  focus 
the  scattered  rays  of  the  religious  knowledge  and 
feeling  of  his  people ;  but  his  inspiration  would  be 
unintelligible  were  he  not  the  product  of  the  age. 
He  speaks  a  rustic  language,  if  reared  among  a  pas- 
toral people ;  he  speaks  the  language  of  courts,  if  he 
has  moved  among  those  who  wear  the  ermine.  The 
inspired  seer  and  the  common  man  are  alike  in  free 


248  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


spiritual  activity  related  to  the  Soul  of  things,  yet 
developed  in  finite  objective  conditions. 

The  seer  imparts  no  truth  which  is  not  a  possible 
discovery  for  the  ordinary  man,  if  in  free  spiritual 
activity,  striving  for  higher  consciousness 
b^s^ers""  of  the  Divine,  he  shall  gain  higher  spirit- 
ual insight.  The  seer,  possessing  a  greater 
receptivity  for  the  Divine,  gathers  into  the  speculum 
of  a  larger  apprehension  the  rays  of  truth.  Man 
everywhere,  by  virtue  of  his  divine  constitution  may 
be  expected,  with  more  or  less  faltering  utterance, 
to  speak  from  out  the  sphere  of  the  divine.  *'  Re- 
markable it  is,  truly,"  says  Mr.  Carlyle,  "how  every- 
where the  eternal  fact  begins  to  be  recognized,  that 
there  is  a  Godlike  in  human  affairs ;  that  God  not 
only  made  us  and  beholds  us,  but  is  in  us  and 
around  us ;  that  the  age  of  miracles,  as  it  ever  was, 
now  is.  .  .  .  So  stands  it,  in  short,  with  all 
forms  of  Intellect  whether  as  directed  to  the  finding 
of  Truth,  or  to  the  fit  imparting  thereof :  to  Poetry, 
to  Eloquence,  to  depth  of  Insight,  which  is  the  basis 
of  both  these:  always  the  characteristic  of  right  per- 
formance is  a  certain  spontaneity,  an  unconscious- 
ness: *  the  healthy  know  not  of  their  health,  but  only 
the  sick.' " 

The  man  of  God  speaks  as  in  an  ecstasy,  for  he 
speaks  from  the  realm  of  Divine  freedom  and 
reason ;  but  the  truth  he  has  gained  for  himself 
finds  response  in  the  consciousness  of  people  around 
him,  and  his  pontifical  utterances  are  the  expressions 
of  the  longings  and  hopes  which  have  haunted  kin- 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  249 


dred  spirits,  and   are   solutions   of    heart-problems 
which  have  stirred  the  souls  of  many  others. 

Were  not  the  substance  of  his  teaching  that  which 
kindles  common  sympathies,  and  which  has  a  basis 
in  human  nature,  were  not  the  seer  rooted 
in  the  soil  of  his  age  and  conditioned  by      interprets 
the  epoch  to  which  he  belongs,  he  would        national 

t  .1  •     n  .         ,   .  .  r^,  feeling. 

be  without  mfluence  ni  his  tim,e.  The 
Prophet  indeed  felt  himself  to  be  the  agent  of  God, 
clothed  with  Divine  authority  and  inspired  with 
marvellous  courage.  A  holy  fire  consumed  him ;  he 
is  impelled  to  convey  his  message,  though  human 
selfishness  and  hostility  oppress  his  spirit.  The  in- 
spiration of  the  Christian  philanthropist  of  the  present 
day  may  quantitatively,  but  not  qualitatively,  be 
differentiated  from  that  of  the  ancient  servant  of 
God.  There  cannot,  it  would  seem,  be  two  kinds  of 
inspiration. 

The  proof  of  the  Divine  legitimacy  of  the  mission 
of  ancient  messengers  of  God,  in  their  contention 
with  a  false  inspiration,  consisted  in  a  subjective 
conviction,  but  a  conviction  rooted  in  the  objective 
ground  of  the  moral  constitution  of  man.  The 
Divine  intuitions  vouchsafed  to  them,  came  through 
their  historic  experience,  intuitions  of  the  right,  and 
of  the  Divine  will,  which  were  the  product  of  the 
immanent  Spirit,  in  its  constant  relation  to  the  finite 
spirit,  subject  to  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  world. 
Not  infrequently  they  claim  as  Divine  revelations, 
certain  convictions  which  obviously  are  the  product  of 
natural  psychological  conditions.     The  solid  ground 


2$o  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


of  their  prophetic  authority  was  that  of  the  practical 
intuitions  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  which  in  all 
religious  men  attest  the  immanence  of  the  infinite 
Spirit.  Exalted  by  an  intense  consciousness  of  eter- 
nal ideals,  they  discerned  the  presence  in  history  of 
the  personal  Power  which  "  makes  for  righteousness," 
and  the  inevitable  triumph  of  Divine  purpose. 

It  is  this  purpose  revealed  with  increasing  clear- 
ness in  world-relations  that  brings  the  seer  upon  the 
scene.  Sharing  the  religious  constitution  with  all 
others,  in  proverb,  psalm,  and  prediction,  he  expresses 
their  latent  thought  and  feeling.  If  man  were  devoid 
of  this  religious  nature,  neither  the  Prophet,  nor  his 
people  could  have  knowledge  of  God.  It  would  be 
impossible  for  the  seer  to  receive  his  message,  and 
impossible  for  his  people  to  receive  it.  All  the  hght 
which  floods  the  world,  would  impinge  in  vain  upon 
the  eyes  were  there  not  a  power  of  vision,  through 
which  objective  presentations  may  become  subjective 
perceptions.  All  the  orchestras  in  the  world  would 
in  vain  pour  forth  their  harmonies,  if  there  were  no 
*  music  in  the  soul.'  No  truth  can  be  gained  by  the  seer, 
or  imparted  by  him  to  another,  which  cannot  become 
the  mental  property  of  him  who  hears  the  message, 
by  the  co-operation  of  his  intelligence  and  feeling. 

Nor  is  the  telescopic  glance  of  the  seer  into  the 
future  inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  psychology. 
Power  to  pre-  Whatever  knowledge  of  future  events  may 
diet  events,  ^^vc  been  possessed  by  men  of  the  olden 
time,  it  could  not  have  been  imparted  in  a  manner  to 
dispense  with  normal  psychical  activities. 


The  Ultimate  Ground.  251 


Becoming  more  conscious  of  the  operation  in  life 
of  the  sublime  laws  of  right  and  justice,  in  his  com- 
munion with  the  Highest,  the  servant  of  God  divines 
the  trend  of  the  curve  of  destiny,  one  segment  of  which 
lies  in  the  present.  A  true  philosophy  of  history 
cannot  be  gained  by  one  who  has  no  high  moral  in- 
sight into  the  movement  of  history  as  a  divine 
evolution.  Statesmen  like  Washington,  possessing 
unique  moral  prescience,  can  warn  their  country- 
men of  remote  dangers.  The  mere  politician  whose 
soul  is  not  "touched  to  fine  issues  "  is  only  capable 
of  limited  vision,  and  is  like  a  pilot  blinded  by  fog, 
and  steers  towards  the  reef. 

The  spiritual  reason  discerns  afar  coming  ills,  or 
the  triumph  of  justice.  As  certain  trees  of  the  wood 
with  tremulous  leaf  announce  the  coming  breeze  be- 
fore others  give  signs  of  movement,  so  certain  minds 
are  presentient  of  events  far  distant.  Valiant  souls 
who  stand  upon  the  heights  of  spiritual  vision  are 
oppressed  with  the  consciousness  of  the  dumb  in- 
dignations which  slumber  in  the  general  conscience 
of  their  countrymen,  and  they  sound  the  tocsin  of 
warning.  The  seers  of  the  race  do  not  make  revela- 
tions ;  they  are  occasional  voices  of  the  Divine  in 
history,  and  their  utterances  are  the  striking  of  the 
chimes  of  the  hour  of  God's  manifestation.  The 
writings  or  proclamations  of  the  holiest  men  only 
express  in  higher  or  lower  notes  the  spiritual  in- 
stincts of  mankind,  and  the  latter  distinguish  in 
those  utterances  the  transient  from  the  permanent 
elements,  the  human  from  the  divine. 


252  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


Such  is  the  cheering  view  of  the  continuous 
revelation  in  Nature  and  history,  which  accords 
Revelation  with  the  conceptions  of  science.  Many 
and  Science,  blinds  at  first  rcluctant  to  accept  it,  grad- 
ually forced  by  the  cumulative  evidence  derived 
from  biology,  psychology,  and  history,  of  a  uni- 
versal law  of  development,  change  their  mental 
attitude,  and  escape  from  confusion  into  an  ordered 
realm  of  thought,  and  at  once  become  conscious  of 
a  more  intimate  relation  to  the  infinite  Heart  of 
things.  The  facts  of  the  world  and  history  fall 
into  benign  order,  and  a  glorious  perspective  is  un- 
folded to  the  devout  mind.  The  revelation  of  God 
to  his  children  is  not  from  a  Being  who  sits  in  glacial 
isolation  beyond  the  world,  who  now  and  then  to 
save  things  from  wreck  interferes  with  the  estab- 
lished order,  and  whose  truth  supervenes  upon  the 
normal  action  of  man's  rational  and  moral  constitu- 
tion. It  is  the  revelation  of  an  intra-mundane 
Wisdom  and  Love  inspiring  men  to  develop  lan- 
guage, society,  sacred  literatures,  and  religion  in 
free,  rational,  and  spiritual  life. 

The  Deistic  view  of  the  world  is  everywhere 
Pro  ressof  yielding  to  that  of  the  Divine  imman- 
the  doctrine     ence.     We  may  approve  of  the  utterance 

of  immanence.      r    /-       .i 

of  Goethe : 

"  No  !  such  a  God  my  worship  may  not  win 
Who  lets  the  world  about  his  fingers  spin 
A  thing  extern  ;  my  God  must  rule  within, 
And  whom  I  own  for  Father,  God,  Creator, 
Hold  nature  in  himself.  Himself  in  nature  ; 
And  in  his  kindly  arms  embraced,  the  whole 
Doth  live  and  move  by  his  pervading  soul." 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  253 


St.   Paul,  at    Athens,  proclaimed  the  truth  of  the 
Divine    immanence ;    *'  In   Him  we  live  and  move 
and  have  our  being." 
And  Coleridge  writes  : 

'*  And  what  if  all  animated  Nature 
Be  but  organic  harps  diversely  framed 
That  tremble  into  thought,  as  o'er  them  sweeps 
Plastic  and  vast  one  intellectual  breeze 
At  once  the  soul  of  each,  and  God  of  all  ?  " 

*' The  theologian,"  says  De  Laprade,  ''compromises  the  august 
verities  of  which  he  is  the  repository,  in  an  impossible  strife  with  the 
verities  less  high,  but  more  striking  and  more  palpable.  Physical 
Science  is  thus  established  outside  Religion  ;  by  that  very  act  it  be- 
comes impious.  Science  is  to  be  blamed  for  accepting  this  exile 
which  separates  it  from  the  moral  World  ;  it  ought  to  force  the  gates 
of  the  sanctuary  by  its  supplications.  Theology  should  not  be  able 
to  refuse  a  place  to  it  at  the  spiritual  banquet.  The  first  fault  is  that 
of  Theology.  She  has  preceded  science  ;  she  ought  to  have  reared  her 
in  her  bosom,  and  nourished  her  with  her  milk.  She  has  repulsed 
science  from  the  church  as  another  Hagar,  has  rejected  her  into  the 
desert  of  materialism,  and  the  numerous  tribes  of  Ishmael  now  lift 
themselves  against  the  posterity  of  Abraham." 

Tracing  the  career  of  man  from  the  earliest  time 
we  see  him  immerged  in  conflict,  but  it  is  a  conflict 
which  marks  his  growth  in  dignity  and       ^    ,  ^. 

*=»  ^  .  Evolution 

knowledge  of  God.  His  pains  are  the  accompanied 
pains  of  growth.  His  history  is  a  succes-  by  sadness, 
sion  of  pages,  chapters,  volumes,  making  manifest  his 
progressive  liberation  into  higher  consciousness  of 
the  infinite  Goodness.  It  is  a  wearisome  but  a 
glorious  march  from  his  beliefs,  recorded  on  monu- 
ments and  cylinders,  to  the  sublime  prophecies  of 
the  eighth  century  before  Christ.     From  the  lower 


254  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


ideals  to  the  higher,  from  the  worship  of  Powers  of 
Nature  to  that  of  the  tribal  and  national  Deity,  and 
the  recognition  of  the  universal  fatherhood  of  God, 
is  a  stupendous  advance.  The  ever  more  clearly 
apprehended  Ideal  has,  however,  saddened,  while  it 
has  inspired  and  uplifted  man.  The  dictates  of 
reason  have  become  more  imperative  as  the  conflict 
between  the  animal  within  him  and  the  impulses  of 
the  higher  soul  has  become  one  of  more  rigor. 
Gaining  in  moral  sensibility,  he  becomes  ever  more 
impatient  of  his  vassalage  to  sense  or  the  lower 
desires  of  the  mind.  Every  act  of  insurgence  against 
the  Divine  love  and  will  seems  more  worthy  of 
blame,  and  sin  wears  a  more  hateful  mien,  as  it  is  the 
hound  which  bites  the  heel  of  the  eager  runner  who 
seeks  the  goal  of  righteousness. 

It  is  not  contended  that  history  discloses  an  unin- 
terrupted progress  of  man,  as  the  Divine  ideal  has 
been  more  clearly  revealed.      The  track 

Progress  ^  -^ 

notuninter-  of  history  is  bloody,  and  human  societies 
rupted.  have    risen,   and    through   corruption    of 

morals  have  fallen  to  rise  no  more.  While  Morality 
and  Religion  have  arrived  at  higher  and  purer  expres- 
sion in  the  more  receptive  minds  of  the  race,  and 
while  in  the  intellectual,  social,  and  material  well- 
being  we  trace  a  progress  marked  by  many  hesita- 
tions and  retrogressions,  the  conviction  gains  strength 
that  the  progressive  unveiling  of  the  ideals  of  Mo- 
rality and  Religion  does  not  arrest  the  conflict 
between  sin  and  righteousness.  It  becomes  a  sharper 
conflict  with  advancing  enlightenment,  and  it  will  go 


The  Ultimate  Ground.  255 


on  to  the  last.  I  have  no  desire,  in  the  interest  of 
the  theory  of  Progress,  to  minimize  the  moral  evil  in 
the  world,  nor  to  obscure  the  responsibility  of  man. 
Indeed  many  who  cling  to  the  conservative  view, 
and  emphasize  the  external  interference  of  Deity  at 
certain  moments  of  history,  and  who  still  cherish 
suspicion  of  the  doctrine  of  Divine  immanence,  are 
found  to  be  often  more  optimistic  than  they  who 
hold  the  doctrine  of  an  intra-mundane  Presence. 

Theologians  conceive  Christianity  to  be  an  irrup- 
tion into  history,  and  at  the  same  time  a  continuity 
of  history.  So  far  as  it  is  an  irruption,  it  inconsistency 
is  only  for  a  time  a  breach  of  continuity,  of  many 
and  christian  life  now  finds  its  growth  in  *  ^°  o&»ans. 
strict  accordance  with  the  laws  of  psychology.  This 
progress  of  religion  is  now  in  an  orderly  manner  to 
advance  to  successive  conquests  and  to  culminate 
in  a  perfect  Divine  society.  The  believer  in  im- 
manent revelation  and  the  believer  in  extra-mun- 
dane intervention  are  in  accord  in  the  view  that 
from  this  time  on  the  course  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  is  to  be  finished  through  Divine  impulses  which 
are  in  harmony  with  psychological  laws,  and  that  no 
violations,  or  even  counteractions,  of  natural  laws 
are  to  be  admitted.  But  the  theologian  of  the  past 
has  broken  history  into  parts.  He  has  not  the  con- 
fidence in  a  Divine  immanence  in  the  beginnings  of 
history,  that  he  now  cherishes  in  respect  of  the  future 
of  history.  It  is  difficult  then  to  justify  the  charge 
brought  by  theologians  against  the  scientific  view 
of  religious  development  as  optimistic  and  naturalis- 


256  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


tic,  so  long  as  they  now  hold  that  Christianity  is 
subject  to  the  same  law  of  progress. 

The  scientific  view  of  development  is  that  Re- 
ligion has  been  a  divine  impulse  through  all  time  mani- 
festing itself  in  the  divine  constitution  of  man.  The 
theological  view  is,  that  it  is  now  a  development  by 
the  co-operation  of  the  spiritual  constitution  of  man 
with  the  Eternal  Spirit,  but  that  it  has  not  always 
been  so.  And  as  traditional  theology  is  optimistic, 
holding  to  the  final  victory  of  righteousness  and  the 
extinction  of  moral  evil,  it  is  debarred  from  criticism 
of  the  doctrine  of  immanence  as  optimistic.  The 
believers  in  continuous  revelation  through  man's  con- 
stitution and  history  are  not  so  optimistic  as  not  to 
believe  in  the  fall  of  peoples  to  rise  no  more,  and  of 
the  descent  of  individuals  into  such  loss  of  moral 
consciousness  as  perhaps  to  forfeit  immortality. 

Meanwhile,  the  mind  can  not  rest  in  the  view  that  the 
Divine  purpose  was  thwarted,  and  that  this  is  a  shat- 
The  world  tercd  World.  It  is  a  sublime  physical  and 
not  a  wreck,  gpintual  Cosmos.  The  currents  of  infinite 
Goodness  have  been  flowing  eternally  onward,  and 
upon  these  have  been  borne  the  religions  and  seers 
of  the  World  as  white-winged  barques  upon  an  in- 
finite sea. 

Criticism  is  unable  to  darken  the  majestic  evidence, 
derived,  not  from  isolated  texts  of  pre-Christian 
Scripture,  but  implicit  in  the  whole  development  of 
the  spiritual  consciousness  of  the  Hebrew  people, 
and  flashing  from  the  pages  of  its  literature.  The 
unfaltering  conviction  of  a  higher  note  to  be  struck 


The  Ultimate  Ground,  2^y 


in  the  revelation  of  the  Divine  is  not,  perhaps,  ex- 
pressed in  definite  conceptions.  But  the  pulsation 
of  a  Redeeming  purpose  is  felt  in  the  soul  of  the 
Hebrew.  Divine  presentiments  cause  the  more  earn- 
est minds  to  sweep  the  heavens  with  their  lenses,  to 
descry  if  possible  the  Star  which  is  somewhere  in 
the  spaces. 

The  peoples  of  earth  toiling  onward  in  their  course, 
gaining  higher  conceptions  of  the  Ideal-Good,  only 
to  find  themselves  more  conscious  of  sin,  in  not  re- 
alizing that  ideal  in  their  conduct,  with  hopes  often 
shattered,  are  saved  from  despair  and  animated  with 
new  hope,  by  the  advent  in  history  of  the  Perfect 
Man.  Strange  power  has  this  revelation  of  the  Di- 
vine in  humanity  to  kindle  hope,  to  renew  the  heart, 
to  give  victory  to  holy  purpose!  God  thus  makes 
his  highest  disclosure  of  his  presence  in  the  world, 
and  the  sons  of  men,  in  union  with  one  who  is  Per- 
fect Love,  are  delivered  from  the  long  conflict  of  the 
ideal  with  the  actual,  and  from  self-condemnation. 
But  Christian  Redemption  is  to  be  achieved  through 
conflict,  no  longer  in  pursuit  of  abstract  ideals,  but 
in  efforts  to  resemble  Him  who  is  the  realized  Ideal, 
the  Brother,  and  Saviour  who  makes  fully  known  the 
Father.  To  the  end  of  time  the  struggle  endures, 
but  its  goal  is  divine,  and  triumph  is  assured. 

"  Both  our  virtues  and  our  happiness,"  says  Lotze,  "  can  only  flour- 
ish in  the  midst  of  an  active  conflict  with  wrong  in  the  midst  of  self- 
denials  which  society  imposes  on  us,  and  amidst  the  doubts  into  which 
we  are  plunged  by  the  uncertainty  of  the  future,  and  of  the  results  of 
our  efforts.  If  there  were  ever  to  come  a  future  in  which  every 
17 


258  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief. 


stumbling-block  were  smoothed  away,  then  indeed  mankind  would 
be  as  one  flock  ;  but  then  no  longer  like  men,  but  like  a  flock  of  in- 
nocent brutes,  they  would  feed  on  the  good  things  provided  by  Na- 
ture, with  the  same  unconscious  simplicity  as  they  did  at  the  beginning 
of  the  long  course  of  civilization." 


CONCLUSION. 

THUS  God  IS  present  throughout  human  history. 
The  Infinite  includes  the  Finite,  and  knowledge 
of  reality  is  possible  and  theories  of  relativity  must 
forever  vanish.  The  unity  of  history  is  more  clearly 
manifest.  Secular  events  have  been  divine  events. 
Commerce,  industry,  arts,  legislations,  are  not  satanic 
agencies ;  common  life  may  be  as  devout  a  praise  as 
a  Te  Deum  chanted  in  the  minsters  of  the  world. 

As  history,  therefore,  is  itself  a  divine  process,  a 
perpetual  miracle.  Religion  does  not  stand  or  fall 
with  miracles  of  any  time  or  place.  The  march  of 
the  peoples,  through  the  aisles  of  the  centuries,  has 
been  under  the  generalship  of  Infinite  Love.  If  one 
column  has  enjoyed  a  more  familiar  presence  of  the 
Captain  of  the  host,  and  has  been  in  the  advance, 
the  rest  of  the  army  has  not  been  without  guidance. 

Zoroasters  and  Numas  have  felt  themselves  to  be 
guided  by  a  spirit  within  them,  and  Socrates  named 
it  his  Divinity.  No  scintilla  of  the  divine  which  is 
to  be  found  in  the  religious  life  of  other  peoples,  can 
be  disdained.     He  who  takes  account  of  only  one 

259 


26o  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


religion,  may  justly  be  said  to  have  little  experience 
or  knowledge  of  true  religion.  The  religion  of 
Israel  is  the  sublimest  of  studies;  its  history,  the 
most  fecund  with  the  revelation  of  God  to  his 
children.  Semitic  Monotheism,  however  much 
tinged  with  the  influence  of  foreign  cults,  with 
Phoenician  and  Syrian  polytheism  until  the  eighth 
century  before  our  Lord,  challenges  the  wonder  and 
gratitude  of  all  reverent  minds.  The  religious 
Puritanism  of  the  Semitic  Nomads  in  the  early  time 
is  a  divine  fact ;  and  Renan  has  well  said,  ''  The  tent 
of  the  patriarch  Semite  has  been  the  point  of 
departure  of  the  religious  progress  of  humanity." 
The  Hebrew  books  were  not  written  in  Heaven,  and 
sent  down  to  earth  ready  bound  and  lettered  in  gold. 
They  have  been  written  by  men,  but  by  men  who 
thrilled  to  the  presence  of  God  in  his  world,  for 
whom  the  air  of  life  was  charged  with  his  immanence. 
The  truths  which  made  them  the  heralds  of  the 
final  and  universal  religion  came  to  them  in  no  way 
to  violate  the  laws  of  consciousness,  or  of  national 
development.  Because  man's  advancement  has  been 
a  natural  one  therefore  it  has  been  divine.  To  say, 
that  at  a  psychic  moment  of  his  development  he  be- 
gan to  think  and  to  invent  words  in  which  to  clothe 
his  thoughts,  and  to  realize  a  Power  above  him  dis- 
cerned through  and  beyond  the  natural  world — is  it 
not  to  say,  that  his  Maker  thus  revealed  himself  to 
him,  in  so  constituting  his  nature,  that  at  a  certain 
psychic  moment  he  should  be  able  to  think,  to  speak, 
to  discern  a  supreme  and  adorable  Power  above  all 


Conclusion.  261 


sensible  appearances  ?  Surely,  an  external  revelation 
would  be  impossible  to  man  had  he  not  possessed  the 
prior  capacities  for  thought  and  language  and 
Religion  ;  and  those  prior  capacities,  beginning  with 
his  existence,  are  themselves  the  Divine  Revelation., 
in  and  through,  man's  nature.  Thus  the  Hebrew 
literature  is  a  Divine,  yet  human  product.  It 
was  not  because  the  Red  Sea  rolled  back  its  waves, 
or  Sinai  trembled  to  its  base,  or  the  walls  of  Jericho 
fell,  that  the  world  has  yielded  homage  and  faith. 
It  is  because  the  truths  which  the  Creator  kindled 
in  the  soul  of  Israel  are  wanted  by  the  world,  and 
the  world  cannot  do  without  them.  Chateaubriand, 
the  sincere  and  distinguished  Roman  Catholic  of 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  writes,  **  It  is  not 
necessary  to  say  that  Cliristiajiity  is  excellent  be- 
cause it  comes  from  God,  but  it  comes  from  God 
because  it  is  excellent,"  a  thesis  which  grants  us  a 
"  full  liberty  for  examination,  for  comparison,  and 
for  criticism  "  of  sacred  literature. 

The  history  of  the  Jews,  like  the  history  of  all 
peoples,  has  been  a  natural  development  over- watched 
by  God.  The  battle-axe  of  David  was  often  used 
with  no  loftier  purpose  and  with  as  profane  a  vigor 
as  the  battle-axe  of  Saladin,  or  of  Charles  Martel. 
The  historic  currents  of  Jewish  and  foreign  life  are 
ever  flowing  in  upon  each  other,  and  to  subject  the 
latter  to  rigid  historical  inquiry,  while  regarding  the 
former  as  too  holy  and  unique  to  be  tested  by  the 
same  laws  of  criticism,  would  be  an  abandonment  of 
reason.      Greek   and    Roman,    Indian   and   Jewish 


262  Ideal  Bases  of  iZeligious  Belief. 


antiquity,  must  have  an  impartial  treatment.  With 
scientific  probity  must  all  researches  be  conducted, 
all  facts  and  merits  of  religions  be  brought  together, 
for  thus  we  enrich  the  domain  of  general  history, 
and,  what  is  of  more  importance,  we  extend  our 
conception  of  the  Divine  Providence  itself. 

The  expression  "  higher  criticism,"  has  been  made 
a  word  of  obloquy ;  but  the  higher  criticism,  has 
come  to  stay  and  divine  truth  will  emerge  in  new 
resplendence. 

Mr.  Disraeli,  in  the  preface  to  Lothair,  thus  writes  : 

•*  The  disturbance  in  the  mind  of  nations  has  been  occasioned  by 
two  causes  ;  firstly,  by  the  powerful  assault  on  the  divinity  of  the 
Semitic  literature  by  the  Germans  ;  and  secondly,  by  recent  discov- 
eries of  science,  which  are  hastily  supposed  to  be  inconsistent  with 
our  long  received  convictions  as  to  the  relations  between  the  Creator 
and  the  created. 

"  One  of  the  consequences  of  the  divine  government  of  this  world 
which  has  ordained  that  the  sacred  purposes  should  be  effected  by  the 
instrumentality  of  various  human  races,  must  be  occasionally  a  jealous 
discontent  with  the  revelation  entrusted  to  a  particular  family.  But 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe,  that  the  Teutonic  rebellion  of  this  cen- 
tury against  the  divine  truths  entrusted  to  the  Semites  will  ultimately 
meet  with  more  success  than  the  Celtic  insurrection  of  a  preceding 
age.  Both  have  been  sustained  by  the  highest  intellectual  gifts  that 
ever  human  nature  has  displayed  ;  but  when  the  tumult  subsides,  the 
divine  truths  are  found  to  be  not  less  prevalent  than  before,  and 
simply  because  they  are  divine.  Man  brings  to  the  study  of  the 
oracles  more  learning  and  more  criticism  than  of  yore  ;  and  it  is  well 
that  it  should  be  so.  The  documents  will  yet  bear  a  greater  amount 
both  of  erudition  and  examination  than  they  have  received  ;  but  the 
word  of  God  is  eternal  and  will  survive  the  spheres." 

Mr.  Disraeli  intends  more  by  these  words,  it  is 
possible,  than  we  may  wish  to  accept,  but  they  ex- 


Conclusion,  263 


press  that  hopeful  view  of  results  which  makes  his 
words  fairly  the  words  of  Progress. 

We  shall  have  pursued  this  study  of  Religion  in 
vain,  if  we  have  not  been  led  along  these  paths  of 
reflection  to  more  clearly  discern  that  majestic  per- 
son, who,  brother,  friend,  teacher,  Saviour,  perfectly 
reveals  the  Divine,  and  wears  the  crown  of  the  ages. 
When  humanity  shall  have  become  moulded,  by 
that  plastic  Life  into  his  likeness,  the  Eternal  pur- 
pose, so  clearly  revealed  in  the  development  of  his- 
tory, will  attain  the  goal  of  realization. 

NOTE    I. 

The  use  of  an  unknown  law  can  not,  strictly  examined, 
effect  a  miracle.  The  resurrection  of  our  Lord  ex- 
plained by  the  operation  of  an  unknown  law  would  not 
be  miraculous.  Mozley's  objection  seems  valid,*  that  it 
would  only  need  a  recurrence  of  resurrections  to  estab- 
lish a  new  natural  order  of  resurrections.  But  the  new 
order  of  resurrections  would  not  make  the  present  order 
Other  than  it  is,  and  the  criterion  of  a  miracle  is  not 
found  in  any  new  possible  order  ;  it  must  be  tested  by 
the  present  order.  And  tested  by  the  present  order  it  is 
after  all  a  violation  of  it.  The  miracle  is  not  explained 
by  supposing  certain  events — like  a  resurrection,  for  ex- 
ample— recurring  in  accordance  with  some  law  not  native 
to  the  present  order. 

NOTE  II. 

"  It  is  now  clearly  seen,"  says  Sir  Henry  Maine  in  his 
book,  Ancient  Law,  pp.  4,  6,  "  by  all  trustworthy  observers 

*  Bampton  Lectures,  1865,  p.  122. 


264  Ideal  Bases  of  Religious  Belief, 


of  the  primitive  conditions  of  mankind,  that  in  the  in- 
fancy of  the  race  men  could  only  account  for  sustained  or 
periodically  recurring  action  by  supposing  a  personal 
agent.  Thus,  the  wind  blowing  was  a  person,  and  of  course 
a  divine  person  ;  the  sun  rising,  culminating,  and  setting 
was  a  person,  and  a  divine  person  ;  the  earth  yielding 
her  increase  was  a  person,  and  divine.  As  then,  in  the 
physical  world,  so  in  the  moral.  When  a  king  decided 
a  dispute  by  a  sentence,  the  judgment  was  assumed  to 
be  the  result  of  direct  inspiration.  The  divine  agent, 
suggesting  judicial  awards  to  kings  or  to  gods,  the  great- 
est of  Kings  was  Themis.  .  .  .  Kings  are  spoken  of  as  if 
they  had  a  store  of  Themistes  ready  to  hand  for  use  ;  but 
it  must  be  distinctly  understood  that  they  are  not  laws, 
but  judgments,  or,  to  take  the  exact  Teutonic  equivalents, 
'  dooms.'  "  Maine  also  adds,  "  in  early  law  and  amid  the 
rudiments  of  political  thought  ...  a  supernatural 
presidency  is  supposed  to  consecrate  and  keep  together 
all  the  cardinal  institutions  of  those  times,  the  State,  the 
Race,  the  Family."  The  celebration  of  common  rites 
and  common  sacrifices  stands  at  the  threshold  of  society 
itself. 


INDEX. 


Absolute  being,  implies  relative 

being,   143  ;  ethical   character 

of,  159-162 
Accado-Suraerian  texts,  58 
Agnostics   are  forced  to  admire 

Jesus,  226 
Agreeable,   the,  not  always  the 

beautiful,  199 
Alger,  W.  R.,  159 
Alsberg,  29 
Anaxagoras,  142 
Animals,  have  they  a  religion  ? 

7  ;  of  their  psychical  state  we 

are  ignorant,  7 
Animism,    of    prehistoric    man, 

30 ;    no    animism    without    a 

prior    concept    of    anima,    or 

soul,  81  ;    the  Manes,  83  ;    it 

became  retrogressive  with  some 

primitive  peoples,  86 
Anthropocentric    view     of    the 

world,  141 
Antiquity  of  man,  30  ;  evidences 

of,  in  different  lands,  32 
Argyle,  Duke  of,  on  personality, 

150 
Arnold,    Matthew,   on   Hebrew 

feeling  of  righteousness,  104  ; 

his   definition   of  religion,   as 

morality  touched  with  emotion, 

220 
Art  appeals  to  the  higher  soul, 

200 
Artist,    the,    always    a    learner, 

105  ;  is  a  mystic,  105 


Baethgen  on  Semitic  monism, 
100 

Bagehot  on  the  ancient  family, 
T06 

Bain,  psychological  theory,  124 

Balfour,  Mr.,  on  determinism, 
185,  186 

Beard,  Dr. ,  on  the  mystic,  232 

Beautiful,  the,  a  manifestation 
of  Divine  life,  190;  both  a 
subjective  perception  of  man, 
and  objective  in  external  ob- 
jects, 191  ;  in  living  forms, 
193  ;  suggests  infinite  perfec- 
tion, 193 ;  sentiment  of  the 
beautiful  not  identical  with 
the  sentiment  of  the  true  or 
the  good,  200 ;  variations  of 
judgment  concerning  the  beau- 
tiful, 201  ;  ascent  to  the  Infi- 
nite beauty  from  the  lower  to 
the  higher  beauties  of  earth, 
as  stages,  204 

Biblical  Criticism,  56 

Browning,  Robert,  his  idealism, 
127 

Caird,  Edward,  definition  of 
religion,  20  ;  on  Brahmanic 
religion,  as  acosmism,  94 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  248 

Carpenter  Boyd,  idea  of  religion, 

9 
Chaldeo-Assyrian  religion,    ani- 
mistic, 92 


265 


266 


Index. 


Character  or  nature,  of  man, 
what  is  it,  171,  172  ;  is  not 
constituted  of  impressions  or 
sensations,  172  ;  is  not  some- 
thing lying  behind  the  will  of 
man,  171  ;  character  is  the 
product  of  acts  of  the  will, 
171,  172 

Coleridge  quoted,  253 

Comte's  religion  as  worship  of 
humanity,  9 

Conservation  of  energy,  meaning 
of  the  term  given  by  Von 
Hartman,  184 

Cosmic  interactions,  unity  of, 
131  ;  based  upon  changes  in 
the  Divine  ground,  131  ;  how 
do  interactions  occur?  132 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  divides  men 
into  two  classes,  216 

D'Alviella,  Count,  does  not  find 
that  animals  have  any  religion, 
8  ;  his  definition  of  religion, 
12 ;  his  definition  criticised, 
13  ;  on  worship  of  spirits,  112 

Darwin,  his  definition  of  religion, 
12 

De  Broglie  concedes  that  there 
is  a  progress  of  religious  ideas, 

51 

Definitions  of  religion  inspired 
by  historic  spirit,  iT-16  ;  defi- 
nitions inspired  by  philosophy 
of  religious  consciousness  of 
advanced  man,  16-21 

De  Laprade  on  relations  of  the- 
ology to  science,  253 

De  La  Saussaye,  29,  42 

De  Nadaillac,  29 

De  Pressense,  definition  of  re- 
ligion, 23  ;  believes  the  cave 
man  was  superior  to  modern 
savage,  33 ;  concedes  that  a 
state  of  universal  savagery  has 
existed,  51  ;  holds  to  a  mono- 
theism anterior  to  the  savage 
state,  51  ;  on  the  mission  of 
art,  203 


De  Rialhe,  Gerard,  on  primitive 
belief  in  immortality,  31 

Descent  to  savagery  from  higher 
condition  inconceivable,  52 ; 
Tylor's  reply  to  Whately's  ar- 
gument, 52 

Development,  man  is  the  goal 
of,  141  ;  view  of  John  Fiske, 
156 

Diotima,  words  to  Socrates  in 
the  Banquet  of  Plato  concern- 
ing the  Infinite  beauty,  204 

Disraeli,  Mr.,  on  German  criti- 
cism in  preface  to  Lothair,  262 

Divine  immanence  in  nature 
and  the  soul  distinguished 
from  conclusions  of  scientific 
and  metaphysical  pantheism, 
209,  210 

Divine  personality  known  di- 
rectly in,  and  by,  finite  per- 
sons, 142 

Driver,  Professor,  on  Biblical 
narrative  in  Genesis,  59 

Drummond,  Henry,  on  develop- 
ment of  fatherhood  and  moth- 
erhood, or  egoism  and  altruism, 
231 

Du  Bois-Reymond  on  relation 
of  brain-stuff  to  thought,  147 

Duty  and  love,  united  in  reli- 
gion, 214  ;  often  sundered,  as 
in  the  rigorism  of  Kant,  215 

Essence  and  origin  of  religion 
the  materials  for  Philosophy 
of  religion,  4 

Ethical  ])rogress  of  man  from 
low  to  higher  ideals,  continu- 
ous, 175  ;  ethical  and  testhet- 
ical  standards  compared,  188, 
1 89  ,  ethical  consciousness  of 
Hebrews,  213  ;  ethical  reform- 
ers concede  that  the  feeling  of 
love  for  God,  must  be  called 
into  service,  227 

Ethics,  indeterminate  element 
in,  162  ;  the  categorical  im- 
perative,   or    feeling    of     the 


Index. 


267 


"ought,"  165  ;  ethics  must 
defend  freedom  of  the  will, 
167  ;  must  be  perfected  in  re- 
ligion, 213 
Evolution,  of  mythology,  87  ; 
of  morals,  is  a  history  of  morals 
strictly  regarded,  159  ;  of 
man's  historic  life,  attended 
with  sadness,  253 


Fall,  considered  as  a  precosmic 
event,  33  ;  of  man,  a  conscious 
failure  to  realize  an  ideal,  46  ; 
a  drama  in  personal  experi- 
ence, 47  ;  a  loss  in  progress  of 
innocent  naturalness,  48  ;  dis- 
tress of  thought  caused  by  tra- 
ditional view  of  the  Fall,  48  ; 
modified  by  theology,  49 

Family,  the  primitive,  77 

Fenelon,  defence  of  final  pur- 
pose, 138 

Feuerbach,  his  conception  of  re- 
ligion as  man's  worship  of  him- 
self, 9 

Finality,  or  final  purpose,  135- 
140 ;  objection  of  Schopen- 
hauer to  finality,  as  not  neces- 
sarily implying  intention, 
138  ;  is  instinctive  not  deliber- 
ate, according  to  Lachelier, 
138  ;  not  disproved  by  the  ex- 
istence, in  the  world,  of  evil, 
141 

Finite  and  Infinite,  the  relations 
of,  153  ;  that  the  finite  though 
dependent  is  yet  free,  is  an  in- 
tuition, 153 

Fisher,  Geo,  P.,  on  human  and 
Divine  personality,  as  insepar- 
able, 145 

Fiske,  John,  view  of  sin,  65  ;  of 
man  as  the  goal  of  evolution, 

155 
Forces,   correlation  of,   suggests 

unitary  Will  as  ground  of  the 

world,  131 
Fraser,  A.  Campbell,  141 


Genius  not  independent  of  the 
Zeitgeist,  243,  244 

Gerland,  8 

God-consciousness  in  man,  206 

God,  Nature  does  not  conceal 
God,  241  ;  he  is  immanent  in 
the  whole  process  of  the  world 
and  of  history,  241,  242 

Goethe,  quoted,  134  ;  remarks 
on  the  beautiful,  194  ;  on  the 
nearness  of  the  good,  217  ; 
quoted,  252 

Gore,  T>r.,  Lux  Mundi,  on  the 
Fall,  73 

Gravitation  as  unitary  force  sug- 
gests Will  as  ground  of  the 
world,  130 

Greek  philosophy,  stages  of,  97  ; 
decadence,  98 

Greeks,  religion  of,  95 

Green,  T.  H.,  surrenders  the 
key  to  problems  of  life,  229 

Gruppe,  idea  of  religion  as  self- 
ishness, 8 


Haeckel,  cannot  dispense  with 
teleology,  or  finality,  136 

Hartman's  Unconscious  Will, 
134  ;  is  forced  to  admit  its  con- 
sciousness, 136  ;  criticising 
Schopenhauer,  denies  that  will 
is  unintelligent,  137 

Hebrew  literature  and  the  Fall, 
57  ;  contents  of  Genesis,  con- 
sidered by  Sayce,  Kuenen, 
White,  Driver,  and  others, 
57-60 

Hebrew  religion,  superior  to 
other  Semitic  religions,  103  ; 
Matthew  Arnold's  estimate  of 
its  ethical  value,  104  ;  reveals 
a  redeeming  Purpose,  257 

Hegel,  the  sense  of  dependence, 
as  constituting  religion  not  ad- 
missible, else  dogs  would  be 
religious,  12 ;  his  logical  pro- 
cess, or  panlogism  implies 
fatalism,  229 


268 


Index. 


Ilenotheism  a  stage  of  religious 
progress,  in  which  one  of  a 
college  of  deities  is  for  a  time 
supreme,  89 

Herbart  on  final  purpose  in  the 
world,  138 

Higher  criticism,  its  importance 
established,  262 

Hippias,  theory  of  beauty,  as 
suitableness  to  an  end,  199 

Historic  peoples  viewed  as  co- 
lossal men,  91 

History,  of  man,  a  revelation  of 
Infinite  purpose,  241  ;  is  a 
history  of  religion  itself,  241  ; 
is  a  perpetual  miracle.  259  ;  of 
the  Jews  is  subject  to  same  his- 
torical treatment  as  that  of 
other  peoples,  261 

Hoffding,  on  psychical  individu- 
ality, 41  ;  criticism  of  Hume 
on  the  nature  of  the  ego,  or 
self,  169 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  on  the  mysteri- 
ous feeling  that  we  are  watched 
by  God,  233,  234 

Huxley,  Prof.,  regards  the  world 
as  a  materialized  logical  pro- 
cess, 157  ;  admits  that  the 
feeling  of  the  "ought"  cannot 
be  explained  by  evolutionary  or 
derivative  theories,  166 

Immanence  of  Will  the  best 
explanation  of  the  World,  133 

Indie  religion,  its  genius  is  meta- 
physical, 92-94 

Iran,  religion  of,  is  ethical  and 
dualistic,  94,  95 

James,  Professor  William,  "no 
thought  without  a  thinker  and 
no  thinker  without  thought," 
125 

Jevons,  F.  B.,  regards  Totemism 
as  at  one  time  a  universal  state, 
and  a  descent  from  monothe- 
ism, 102 


Kant's  theory  of  knowledge,  121 


Lachelier,  his  objection  to  final- 
ity as  being  instinctive,  and 
blind,  not  involving  purpose, 
thus  emptying  the  word  finality 
of  meaning,  138 

Language,  morality  and  religion 
developed  in  external  relations, 
75  ;  Unity  of  all  languages  ex- 
amined, 54 

Legend  and  myth  made  use  of 
by  the  Divine  Spirit  for  pur- 
poses of  education,  239 

Leibniz  on  finality,  135 

Lenormant  Fran9ois,  his  view  of 
man's  primitive  sinlessness,  50 

Liberty  of  Will  not  a  blind 
choice,  but  governed  by  ideals 
of  reason,  170 

Lotze,  Hermann,  on  influence  of 
religion  on  progress,  26 ;  on 
primitive  moral  perfection  and 
fall  of  man,  61  ;  on  Divine 
self-consciousness,  143,144;  on 
relations  of  mind  and  matter, 
148  ;  on  conflict  with  evil  to 
the  end  of  time,  257 

Love,  spiritual,  the  highest  reve- 
lation of  God,  217,  225,  226;  de- 
mand for  spiritual  affection 
towards  God  in  modern  eco- 
nomics, 217 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  on  perfection 
of  primitive  man,  as  not  ad- 
missible, 54 

Maine,  Sir  H.,  on  primitive 
man's  perception  of  personal 
agency  in  nature,  264 

Man  not  the  sole  end  for  which 
the  world  is  made,  141 

Martineau,  James,  definition  of 
religion,  18  ;  relation  of  human 
to  superhuman  wills,  129  ;  on 
Schopenhauer,  134;  on  inner 
and  outer  causality,  149 ;  in 
the  acts  of  conscience,  we  have 
a  direct  cognition  of  God,  163, 


Index, 


269 


182  ;  quoted  concerning  the 
causality  of  man,  as  depend- 
ent, and  yet  independent  of 
Divine  Causality,  209  ;  on 
morality  as  related  to  religion, 
221  ;  on  importance  of  saving 
man's  freedom  of  will  from 
pantheistic  absorption,  218 

Maspero,  Count  G.,  on  flint  im- 
plements in  Egypt,  42 

Menzies,  Allan,  4  ;  on  continuity 
of  religious  growth,  ii 

Merivale,  on  the  most  potent  ar- 
gument for  truth  of  Christian- 
ity, viz..  Christian  lives,  226 

Metaphysics  a  necessity  of  rea- 
son, 117  ;  physical  science  rests 
upon  metaphysics,  119;  prob- 
lem of  metaphysics,  119;  ab- 
stract, must  give  way  to  induc- 
tive and  ethical,  metaphysic, 
158,  164 

Michelet  on  universal  morality, 
181,  182 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  154 

Miracles,  no  interference  with 
order  of  the  world,  238  ;  are 
outflashes  of  psychic  activity  of 
God,  in  harmony  with  regi- 
mented phenomena  of  the 
world,  238  ;  are  exceptional 
acts  of  Absolute  Spirit,  taking 
their  place,  without  collision, 
in  the  world-order,  238  ;  might 
be  multiplied  to  infinite  num- 
ber, but  would  be  of  no  avail 
if  man  were  not  already  en- 
dowed with  a  religious  capac- 
ity, 239 

Momerie,  Dr.,  118 

Monads,  spiritual,  are  the  atoms 
of  science,  4  \  ;  have  a  psychi- 
cal individuality,  44  ;  in  their 
essence  are  one  with  God,  as 
interacting  individualities,  con- 
stitute the  visible  cosmos,  45  ; 
in  a  state  of  stress  under  Divine 
discipline,  offer  the  aspect,  to 
us,  of  matter,  45,  151  ;  are  en- 


dowed with  freedom,  yet  are 
dependent  on  the  Ground  of 
the  world,  152 

Monistic  impulse  in  primitive 
thought,   129 

Monotheism,  primitive,  and  facts 
of  archaeology,  50 

Montalembert,  Monks  of  the 
West,    12-16 

Montefiore,  C.  G.,  thinks  monol- 
atry  was  first  unveiled  by 
Moses,  loi 

Moral  character  incomplete  until 
duty  becomes  spontaneity,  221 

Moral  ideal  accepted  by  both 
derivative  and  intuitional 
schools  of  ethics,  161  ;  moral 
ideals  are  the  forces  of  progress, 
164,  174  ;  they  point  to  future 
perfection  of  society,  177 

Mosaic  commands,  become  a 
pathos  of  the  heart  with  the 
prophets,  214 

Motives  are  rational  ideals,  not 
physical  or  psychical  con- 
straint of  the  choice  of  the  will, 
168 

Mozley  objects  to  miracles  as  a 
use  of  unknown  law,  263 

Muller,  Max,  definition  of  re- 
ligion, 14  ;  remarks  upon  his 
view,  15  ;  his  opinion  concern- 
ing animism,  81,  91  ;  quotation 
from,  no.  III 

Murphy,  J.  J.,  the  Absolute  does 
not  exclude  the  relative,  but 
implies  it,  157 

Mysticism,  essential  to  religion, 
218  ;  mistakes  of  mediaeval 
mysticism,  219  ;  has  not,  for 
the  most  part,  been  divorced 
from  reason  and  morality,  219  ; 
is  not  unpsychological,  243 

Mystics  err  in  trusting  to  feeling 
unregulated  by  reason,  218  ; 
but  are  not  more  in  error  than 
the  rationalist,  or  the  moralist, 
218 

Mythological  evolution,  87 


270 


Index, 


Mythopoeic  impulse  of  early  men, 
go 

Natural    selection   is   a    means, 

not  a  cause,  of  variation,  136 

Naturism     of     primitive     man, 

77-79 
Noldeke  on  naturism  in  Semitic 
religion,  100 

Order  of  nature  a  purpose  of 
Goodness,  235 

Pantheism,  true  and  false,  208  ; 
metaphysical  pantheism  makes 
the  Absolute  devour  the  world  ; 
scientific  pantheism  makes  the 
world  devour  God,  210;  can- 
not produce  a  spiritual  love  in 
man,  as  there  must  be  a  person 
for  man  to  love,  211  ;  is  in  re- 
ality atheism,  211 

Paulsen,  Prof.,  on  freedom  of  the 
will,  171 

Pentateuch,  the,  104,  105 

Perfectibility  and  perfection,  194 

Personality,  the  beginning  and 
end  of  metaphysics,  120,  121  ; 
is  not  a  bundle  of  sensations, 
124;  personality  of  God  and 
man  stand  and  fall  together, 
145  ;  of  God  assailed  by  pan- 
theism, 211 

Pessimism,  177;  remedies  for 
pessimism,  180 

Pfleiderer,  Otto,  his  definition  of 
religion,  16  ;  on  morality  and 
religion,  76,  109,  160  ;  on  union 
of  duty  and  love,  214 

Philosophy  has  had  a  genetic 
progress,   39 

Physical  determinism,  or  psychi- 
cal determinism,  168  ;  a  dis- 
guised indeterminism,  172  ; 
only  an  hypothesis,  184  ;  cer- 
tain links  which  they  cannot 
supply,  185 

Physiological  ethics,  attempts  to 


set  aside  the  moral  imperative 
by  denying  the  ethical  person- 
ality of  God,  166 

Picton,  quotation  from,  124 

Pietschmann  quoted  concerning 
one  clan  god  of  Canaanites  and 
Phoenicians,  loi 

Platonician  theory  of  beauty, 
197 

Prediction  of  events  a  power  not 
unrelated  to  psychology,  250 

Prehistoric  archaeology,  disclos- 
ures made  by  it,  32 

Primitive  man  and  savage  man, 
33  ;  capable  of  progress,  un- 
like modern  savage,  43  ;  con- 
scious of  a  higher  Power,  207 

Progress,  cumulative  proof  that 
it  is  continuous,  37  ;  what  is 
progress  ?,  40 ;  four  stages  of 
progress,  41,  84;  progress  of 
animism  sometimes  has  been 
arrested,  85  ;  of  man  and  na- 
ture a  supernatural  fact,  242  ; 
though  continuous,  yet  not  un- 
interrupted for  a  time,  254 

Prophet,  or  seer,  interprets  na- 
tional feeling,  248,  249 

Purpose  in  nature  not  always  ap- 
parent, 235,  236 

Quatrefages,  M  ,  on  primitive 
belief  in  continued  life,  30 

Quinet,  Edgar,  on  primitive 
man,  31  ;  on  personal  gran- 
deur and  influence  of  Christ, 
227,  228  ;  his  criticism  of 
Strauss,  227,  228 

Rauwenhoff  on   the    feeling  of 

the  "ought."  166 
Redemption  of  man  implied  in 

the    evolution   of    the   world, 

161 
Rejected  Addresses,  a  poem,  lines 

quoted  from  it,  139 
Religion,    its    universality,     3 ; 

history  of,    in  what    sense   a 


Index, 


271 


natural  science,  5  ;  science  of 
historical  and  comparative,  en- 
lightens us  as  to  content  and 
validity  of  religion,  6  ;  is  not 
a  subjective  illusion,  9  ;  not  to 
be  explained  as  *'  cosmic  emo- 
tion," nor  as  *'  habitual  admir- 
ation," 10 ;  is  a  consciousness 
of  God,  21  ;  definition  of 
religion,  22  ;  has  a  natural 
history,  24  ;  is  a  progressive 
capacity.  74,  75  ;  common  root 
of  religion  and  morality,  76  ; 
interaction  of  religion  and  mo- 
rality, 83 

Religious  phenomena  the  legiti- 
mate materials  of  science,  4 

Remorse,  an  ethico-spiritual  ex- 
perience, 222,  223  ;  is  not  a 
survival  of  social  judgments, 
nor  is  it  a  product  of  them,  223 

Renan,  M.,  100 

Revelation,  of  God,  through  the 
order  of  nature,  235  ;  is  not 
possible  apart  from  man's  prior 
capacity  to  receive  it,  239  ;  re- 
lation to  revelation  to  psycho- 
logical laws,  240  ;  is  a  divine 
illumination  of  man's  natural 
powers,  240  ;  is  made  through 
evolution  of  history,  241  ;  im- 
manent revelation  is  not  con- 
sistent with  Deistic  conception 
of  the  world,  245  ;  is  coeval 
with  man's  moral  conscious- 
ness, 246 ;  is  made  through 
the  seer,  or  prophet,  or  hero, 
247  ;  considered  in  relation  to 
scientific  view  of  the  world, 
252 

Romanes,  Mr.,  holds  that  nature 
is  instinct  with  contrivance, 
155  ;  his  speculations  concern- 
ing heredity  may  be  left  to 
future  of  science,  246 

Ryle,  Dr.,  on  Hebrew  Cosmog- 
ony, 59 

Sayce,  A.  H.    Note  on  primitive 


unconsciousness  of  sin  in  Ac- 
cadian  texts,  70,  71  ;  on  To- 
temism,  113 

Schiller,  F.  C.  S.  Note  upon 
God  and  the  Monads,  67  ;  on 
potentiality  and  actuality,  153  ; 
on  indeterminism,  172 ;  on 
pantheism,  as,  practically, 
atheism,  211 

Schleiermacher,  definition  of  re- 
ligion, 12 

Schopenhauer,  137  ;  objection  to 
finality,  138 

Schrader,  Dr.  Otto,  on  naturism, 

93 

Schulz,  Hermann,  on  Genesis, 
58,  60 

Schurman,  J.  G.,  quotes  Darwin 
on  variation,  and  contends  that 
it  is  not  unintentional,  154; 
says  a  question  of  conscience 
cannot  be  decided  by  a  plebis- 
cite of  utilitarians,  223 

Science  of  language  renders 
descent  to  savagery  from  higher 
stage  improbable,  53 

Science  of  religion^  what  is  it?, 
5  ;  is  not  concerned  with  sub- 
human or  animal  qualities,  27 

Sciences  of  nature,  monistic  in 
their  tendency,  131 

Scientists,  must  accept  the  mor- 
al trustworthiness  of  nature,  a 
virtual  theism,  before  they  can 
get  under  weigh,  140 

Scriptural  man,  as  depicted,  a 
non-moral  being,  52 

Secretan,  Charles,  on  precosmic 
fall,  68  ;  on  three  difficulties 
necessary  determinism  must 
meet,  185,  187 

Seer,  or  prophet,  the  child  of  his 
age,  247  ;  every  man  capable 
of  being  a  seer,  248  ;  he  utters 
the  hopes  and  longings  of  his 
age,  248,  249 

Self-consciousness  of  man,  and 
Divine  self-consciousness  com- 
pared, 143  ;  is  an  intuition  and 


272 


Index. 


is  not  capable  of  proof,  and 
does  not  need  it,  205 

Self,  the  first  reality  known  by 
us,  120;  is  not  to  be  identified 
with  sensations,  125  ;  self  and 
other-than-self,  127 

Semitic  religion,  99 

Seth,  Professor  James,  on  free- 
dom of  man,  183 

Sin,  a  fact  in  the  historic  develop- 
ment, 44 ;  began  with  pre- 
cosmic  spirits,  45  ;  is  a  rejec- 
tion of  the  ideal,  61  ;  is  a  per- 
sonal, not  an  ancestral  affair, 
62;  the  consciousness  of  sin, 
is  a  negative  aspect  of  man's 
intuition  of  Divine  love,  224  ; 
nations  as  well  as  individuals 
are  conscious  of  sin,  224  ;  con- 
sciousness of  sin  has  made  men 
great  reformers,  224  ;  this 
sense  of  sin  rises  not  from 
"vibrations"  or  "  vibratiun- 
cles,"  but  from  consciousness 
of  the  Divine  holiness,  225 

Smith,  Robertson,  on  Semitic 
Totemism.  102 

Soul,  unveiling  of,  to  primitive 
man,  80 

Special  design  in  nature  and  man 
not  irrational,  nor  wholly  ab- 
sent, 140 

Spencer,  Herbert,  his  theory  of 
ancestor-worship,  82 

Spiritual  experience  the  highest 
evidence  of  the  Divine,  217 

Spiritual  love,  completes  the  ethi- 
cal feeling,  212  ;  is  based  upon 
it,  212  ;  must  be  taken  account 
of  by  psychology,  217 

Students  of  nature  are,  of  neces- 
sity, metaphysicians,  132 

Sublimity  in  objects  of  nature, 
and  in  human  conduct,  reveal 
God,  203 

Supernatural  ism,  the  true,  is 
found  in  man's  religious  consti- 
tution, and  in  the  Divine  order 
of  the  world,  239  ;  is  not  an  as- 


sault   upon   man's   conscious- 
ness, 240 
Survival  of  primitive  rites,  doc- 
trines, phrases,  38 

Themistes,  judicial  awards  sug- 
gested by  the  gods,  to  ancient 
kings,  264 

Theologians,  inconsistency  of 
some,  255  ;  they  conceive  of 
history  as  both  a  miracle  and 
an  ordered  progress,  255  ;  they 
accept  Divine  immanence  for 
a  portion  of  world-time,  and 
for  another  portion  of  it  reject 
immanence,  255,  256 

Thiele,  C.  P.,  on  universality  of 
religion,  3 

Thought,  connections  of,  not  al- 
ways to  be  traced,  243,  244 

Totemism,  102. 

Triumph  of  the  view  of  Divine 
immanence,  252 

Tylor,  E.  B.,  on  importance  of 
study  of  early  man,  40  ;  on 
doctrine  of  spirits,  82  ;  criticism 
of  Tylor's  view,  89 

Tyndall,  Mr.,  returns  to  Greek 
idea  of  "  Power  of  Becoming" 
as  needed  to  explain  physical 
causation,  184 

Unity  of  origin  of  mankind,  55  ; 
a  unity  of  psychical  constitu- 
tion, 56 

Unity  of  the  soul,  ego,  or  self, 
122  ;  it  is  not  a  static  unity, 
but  realized  in  progress  of 
knowledge,  146 

Upton,  Professor,  164  ;  on  free- 
dom, 173  ;  on  Divine  love  as 
immanent  in  man,  212,  229- 
231 

Utilitarian  ethics,  189 

Vaughan,  Hours  with  the  Mys- 
tics, quoted,  219 

Vischer,  Theodor,  on  the  senti- 
ment of  the  beautiful,  199 

Von  Hartman,  8 


Index. 


^71 


Weber,  Alfred,  154 

Weizsacker  on  the  fall  of  man, 
72 

White,  A.  D.,  on  Jewish  Scrip- 
tures, 59 

Whitney,  Professor,  on  Unity  of 
origin  of  languages  and  of 
men,  54 

Will,  in  ultimate  analysis,  the 
world  is  Will,  131  ;  imman- 
ent Will  the  explanation  of 
the  world,  133  ;  inconceivable 
without  intelligence,  134  ;  de- 
termined by  reasons,  not  by 
motives,  168  ;  is  not  blind  or 
arbitrary  in  its  choices,  170  ; 
it  acts  in  view  of  ideals,  170  ; 
freedom  of  will  is  a  capacity 
to  rise  above  sensuous  im- 
pulses, 171  ;  free  will  an  ab- 
surdity on  the  naturalistic 
view,  185  ;  they  who  deny  its 


freedom  have  a  precious 
faculty  of  ignoring  the  conse- 
quences of  such  denial,  and 
act  as  if  free,  186  ;  the  spec- 
tacle of  men  acting  under  the 
delusion  that  man  is  free, 
while  they  are  not  free,  is  a 
ludicrous  one,  186 

Wilson,  Archdeacon,  on  modern 
criticism  of  Scripture,  59 

Wilson,  Sir  Daniel,  on  palaeo- 
lithic age,  31  ;  on  the  skill  of 
primitive  man,  33 

World,  the,  is  a  reality,  126  ;  what 
is  that  reality,  128  ;  is  that  re- 
ality Will?  129,  130  ;  it  is  not 
governed  by  laws,  but  in  ac- 
cordance with  law,  136  ;  it  is 
the  best  revelation  of  God, 
236  ;  we  can  fancy  other 
worlds  created,  only  because  we 
are  a  part  of  this  world,  236 


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